tibvavy  of  Che  Cheolocjiccri  ^eroinarp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


•a^x&i- 


DA  D   i 


HISTORY 


episcopal  Cl)urcl)  in  Connecticut. 


VOL.  II. 


1 

THE 


HISTORY 


episcopal  Cfmrrf)  in  Connecticut, 


FROM  THE 


DEATH   OF   BISHOP    SEABURY   TO   THE   PRESENT 
TIME. 


|      BY 

E.   EDWARDS   BEARDSLEY,   D.  D., 

RECTOR  OF   ST.   THOMAS' S   CHURCH,   NEW  HAVEN. 


VOL.  H. 


NEW    YORK: 
PUBLISHED    BY    HURD    AND    HOUGHTON. 

LONDON:   SAMPSON   LOW,  SON,  AND  MARSTON. 

1868. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1868,  by 

E.  Edwards  Beardsley, 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  District  of  Connecticut. 


EIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED    AND    PRINTED     BY 

H.   O.   HOUGHTON   AND    COMPANY. 


TO  THE 

RIGHT   REVEREND  JOHN  WILLIAMS,  D.  D., 

A  WORTHY  SUCCESSOR  OF 

SEABURY,  JARVIS,  AND  BROWNELL, 

THIS  CONTINUATION  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

IN  TEE  DIOCESE   OF  CONNECTICUT, 

WITH  RENEWED  GRATITUDE  FOR  HIS  INTEREST  IN  THE  WORK, 

IS    AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED   BY 

THE  AUTHOR 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  VOLUME. 


The  publication  of  this  volume  completes  the  pur- 
pose which  I  formed  when  I  began  to  write  the  a  His- 
tory of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut  '  T  have 
now  traced  its  progress,  from  the  settlement  of  the 
Colony  to  the  death  of  Bishop  Brownell  in  1865,  —  a 
period  of  more  than  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
years,  —  and  given  the  events  with  as  much  minute- 
ness of  detail  as  the  nature  of  the  subject  and  the 
plan  of  the  work  would  permit. 

The  clergy  generally,  in  the  beginning  of  the  pres- 
ent century,  used  very  little  care  in  making  and  pre- 
serving a  complete  record  of  their  official  labors. 
The  Missionaries  of  the  Venerable  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  were 
required  to  send  home  a  full  report  of  the  state  of 
their  respective  missions,  and  in  this  way  information 
was  secured,  which  rendered  it  less  difficult  to  com- 
bine and  arrange  the  materials  for  a  true  narrative  of 
events  connected  with  the  origin  and  progress  of  the 
Church  in  Colonial  times.  But  for  the  first  ten  years 
of  the  Episcopate  of  Bishop  Jarvis,  there  are  no  paro- 
chial reports  to  aid  the  historian,  and  no  printed  ad- 


Vlll  PREFACE  TO   THE   SECOND   VOLUME. 

dresses  summing  up  the  results  of  Episcopal  visita- 
tions. The  meagre  Journals  of  Convention,  and  the 
more  meagre  records  of  the  Convocations  would  have 
been  quite  unsatisfactory,  had  I  not  found,  among  the 
archives  of  the  Diocese  and  in  manuscripts  and  publi- 
cations of  that  period,  statements  and  narratives  as 
full  of  interest  as  they  are  of  significance  and  value. 
When  newspapers  and  periodicals  began  to  appear 
more  frequently  and  regularly,  they  were  made  the 
repository  of  many  important  facts  and  movements, 
the  knowledge  of  which  might  otherwise  have  been 
lost. 

It  would  have  been  an  improper  omission  in  a  work 
of  this  kind,  to  pass  by  the  political  revolution  which 
resulted  in  the  overthrow  of  the  "Standing  Order," 
and  the  adoption  of  a  new  Constitution  for  the  civil 
government  of  the  people  of  the  State.  But  I  have 
not  been  concerned  to  dwell  on  the  heats  and  passions 
of  that  day,  —  having  contented  myself  with  simply 
noting  the  ripening  causes  of  the  revolution,  and  the 
part  which  Episcopalians  bore  in  bringing  it  on.  Their 
influence  in  shaping  the  future  government,  was  a 
natural  outgrowth  of  the  success  which  attended  the 
political  scheme  to  change  the  rulers  of  the  common- 
wealth. 

The  right  to  characterize  persons,  systems,  and 
events,  according  to  the  shades  and  colors  which  they 
assume,  belongs  to  the  office  of  a  faithful  historian. 
But  the  exercise  of  this  right  is  a  delicate  business 


PREFACE   TO  THE   SECOND  VOLUME.  IX 

where  it  involves  a  survey  of  the  achievements  and 
principles  of  living  men,  or  of  those  who  have  just 
passed  from  the  stage  of  human  action.  In  support 
of  the  statements  of  the  text,  and  in  justice  to  Bishop 
Brownell,  I  have  made  liberal  extracts  from  his  ad- 
dresses, sermons,  and  charges,  and  allowed  him  to 
speak  for  himself  on  subjects  about  which  some  diver- 
sity of  opinion  may  be  supposed  to  exist  outside  of 
the  Diocese.  The  same  rule  has  been  partially  ob- 
served in  reference  to  his  successor  in  the  Episcopate, 
and  others  who  have  figured  conspicuously  in  these 
pages. 

That  I  have  made  no  mistakes,  or  that  the  work  is 
entirely  free  from  defects,  I  have  not  the  presumption 
to  claim.  I  am  conscious  of  having  been  diligent  in 
endeavoring  to  secure  correctness,  and  I  have  been 
actuated  by  those  principles  of  impartiality  which 
governed  me  throughout  in  the  preparation  of  the 
first  volume.  I  have  not  sat  beneath  the  arches  of 
history  to  indulge  in  indiscriminate  praise  or  censure. 
Nor  have  I  forgotten  that  "  Salvation  is  of  the  Lord." 
Much  as  I  love  and  venerate  the  Church  of  my  fore- 
fathers, no  one  will  accuse  me  of  raising  it  into  an 
idol,  or  of  exalting  it  above  its  Great  Head. 

My  acknowledgments  are  again  due  to  several 
friends  for  assisting  me  in  my  researches  by  kindly 
placing  in  my  hands  valuable  manuscripts,  documents, 
pamphlets,  and  rare  periodicals.  To  those  clergymen 
and  laymen  of  the  Diocese  in  particular,  who  have 


X       PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  VOLUME. 

taken  the  pains  to  furnish  me  with  brief  outlines  of 
the  history  of  their  respective  parishes,  I  cannot  be 
too  grateful.  Many  of  the  facts  and  personal  inci- 
dents thus  obtained,  which  shed  light  on  the  organ- 
ization and  progress  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Connecticut,  have  been  woven  into  the  thread  of  the 
narrative,  and  assigned  the  important  places  which 
they  deserve. 

With  this  volume  is  issued  a  second  edition  of  the 
first,  in  which  a  few  typographical  and  other  errors 
have  been  corrected.  As  I  part  from  my  work,  I 
have  a  feeling  of  thankfulness  to  the  Giver  of  all 
good,  that  I  have  been  enabled  to  complete  it ;  and  I 
send  it  forth,  such  as  it  is,  only  asking  a  fair  indul- 
gence from  my  readers,  especially  from  those  who 
have  not  added  to  their  pastoral  duties  the  critical 
and  laborious  task  of  writing  a  church  history. 

New  Hayek,  October,  1868.  E.  E.  B. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ELECTION  OF  A  SUCCESSOR  TO  BISHOP  SEABURY,  AND  CONSECRA- 
TION OF  THE  REV.  ABRAHAM  JARVIS  TO  THE  EPISCOPATE  OF  CON- 
NECTICUT. 

A.  D.  1796-1799. 

PAGE 

Special  Convention  at  New  Haven  to  elect  a  Bishop  ....  2 

Constitution  for  the  Episcopal  Academy  adopted        ....  4 

Rev.  John  Bowden  chosen  Principal    .......  4 

His  Election  to  the  Episcopate,  and  Decline  of  the  Office  ...  6 

Rev.  Abraham  Jarvis  elected  a  Second  Time 7 

His  Consecration,  and  the  Sermon  of  Dr.  Smith         ....  9 

"  Answer  to  Mr.  Blatchford's  Letter  " 10 

Consecration  of  St.  John's  Church,  Waterbury 11 

First  Ordination  by  Bishop  Jarvis 11 

Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  voting  a  Salary  to  the  Rector        .         .12 

Infidelity  and  the  French  Revolution 13 

Address  of  the  Clergy  of  Connecticut  to  the  President  of  the  United 

States 13 

Their  Thanks  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff  for  his  Answer  to  Thomas 

Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason  " 14 

Letter  from  William  Jones,  of  Nayland,  to  Dr.  Bowden      .         .         .14 

CHAPTER  II. 

REMOVAL   OF    BISHOP   JARVIS  TO  CHESHIRE  ;    ADOPTION  OF  AN  OFFICE 
OF   INSTITUTION;    AND    EFFORTS    TO    ENDOW    THE    EPISCOPATE. 

A.  D.  1799-1804. 

Prosperity  of  the  Academy,  and  Donations  solicited  for  its  Benefit      .     15 
Committee  appointed  to  frame  Articles  of  Religion     .         .         •         .16 

Death  of  Dr.  Dibblee,  and  Code  of  Canons I7 

Office  of  Institution  prescribed 19 


Xii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Caleb  Childs  and  Ezra  Bradley  degraded  from  the  Ministry  .  .  20 
Rev.  Menzies  Rayner  instituted  into  the  Rectorship  of  Christ  Church, 

Hartford 21 

Removal  of  Dr.  Bowden  to  Columbia  College  .  .  .  .  .22 
Bev.  Dr.  Wm.  Smith  chosen  to  succeed  him  in  the  Academy       .         .     22 

Trustees  of  the  Bishop's  Fund  chartered 23 

Appeal  "  to  the  Members  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut "  for 

Donations         ...........     24 

Grant  of  a  Lottery  for  the  Benefit  of  the  Academy     .        .        .        .26 

Removal  of  Bishop  Jarvis  to  New  Haven    ......     27 

Publication  of  the  Churchman's  Magazine 27 

CHAPTER  in. 

ECCLESIASTICAL     TROUBLE  ;     PROCEEDINGS     LN    THE     CASE     OF     AMMI 
ROGERS  J   AND   INTERPOSITION   OF    THE  HOUSE  OF  BISHOPS  INVOKED. 

A.  D.  1804-1805. 

Peace  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  disturbed 29 

Fabrication  of  Certificate  by  Ammi  Rogers,  and  his  Ordination  by 

Bishop  Provoost 30 

Forbidden  by  Bishop  Jarvis  to  officiate  in  the  Churches  of  the  Diocese     32 
Appeal  of  the  Clergy  to  the  Standing  Committee  of  New  York  .     33 

Rogers  memorializes  the  House  of  Bishops  ......     34 

The  Memorialist  sent  back  to  Connecticut  under  a  Sentence  of  Con- 
demnation         36 

His  Degradation  from  the  Ministry  by  Bishop  Jarvis   .         .         .         .37 

Consequent  Troubles  in  the  Church  at  Stamford  .         .         .         .88 

Effort  of  the  Bishop  and  Clergy  to  conciliate  the  People     .         .         .39 
The   Adherents  of  Rogers  declare  themselves   not  amenable  to  the 
Authority  of  any  Bishop  ........     43 

The  Parish  at  Stamford  excluded  from  Lay  Representation  in  the 
Convention .         .     43 

CHAPTER  IV. 

EPISCOPAL   ACADEMY,  AND   RESIGNATION  OF  DR.  SMITH  ;   RENEWAL  OF 
THE   CASE   OF   AMMI   ROGERS  ;   AND    ORGANIZATION   OF   PARISHES. 

A.  d.  1805-1809. 

Decline  of  the  Institution  at  Cheshire 45 

"  Missives  "  between  the  Trustees  and  Dr.  Smith  .  .  .  .46 
His  Resignation  accepted  by  the  Convention 46 


CONTENTS. 


Xlll 


Rev.  Tillotson  Bronson  chosen  to  fill  the  Vacancy       .         .         .        .47 

Renewal  of  the  Case  of  Ammi  Rogers         ......     47 

Letter  of  the  Clergy  to  the  Bishops,  asking  their  Advice    .         .         .48 
Address  of  Bishop  Jarvis  to  the  Annual  Convention   .         .         .         .50 

Rogers  appeals  again  to  the  House  of  Bishops 53 

Suits  for  Slander,  and  their  Result       .......     54 

Revision  of  the  Canons  by  the  General  Convention    .         .         .         .55 

First  Pastoral  Letter  from  the  House  of  Bishops  .         .         .         .55 

Imperfect  Statistics  of  the  Parishes      .......     56 

Secession  from  the  Congregationalists  in  Bethany        .         .         .         .58 

Isaac  Jones,  their  Minister,  ordained  in  the  Episcopal  Church     .         .     58 
Mr.  Rayner  removes  to  Huntington,  and  is  succeeded  in  Hartford  by 
Rev.  Philander  Chase 60 


CHAPTER  V. 


ACT  RELATING  TO  RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES ;  WARDENS  AND  VESTRYMEN 
A  COMMITTEE  ;  TAXING  AND  GRAND  LEVY;  PETITION  TO  INCOR- 
PORATE THE  EPISCOPAL  ACADEMY  WITH  COLLEGIATE  POWERS  J 
AND   UNION   OF   PARISHES   IN   CURES. 

A.  D.  1809-1811. 

Language  of  the  Law  not  in  accordance  with  the  Usages  of  the  Church     61 

Address  of  Bishop  Jarvis  on  the  Subject .62 

Supplemental  Act  making  Wardens  and  Vestrymen  a  Society's  Com- 
mittee     ............     64 

"  Grand  Levy,"  and  Assessment  of  the  Parishes       .         .         .         .65 

Changes  in  the  relative  Wealth  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut     .         .     65 
Trustees  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  petition  the  General  Assembly 
for  a  Charter  with  Collegiate  Powers       .         .         .         .         .         .67 

The  General  Convention,  meeting  in  New  Haven,  supports  the  Move- 
ment         68 

Second  Pastoral  Letter  from  the  House  of  Bishops      .         .         .         .70 
Visitations  by  Bishop  Jarvis,  and  total  Number  of  Persons  confirmed 

by  him 72 

Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge  formed  .         .         .73 
Union  of  Parishes  in  Cures  not  unalterably  fixed  by  the  Convention  .     74 


Xiv  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

STATISTICS   OF    THE   PARISHES  J   SUPPORT  OF  THE  EPISCOPATE  ;   DEATH 

OF   DR.  HUBBARD  ;    LIST   OF    ORDINATIONS  ;    AND    DEATH    OF   BISHOP 

JARVIS. 

A.  D.  1811-1813. 

PAGE 

Statistics  of  nine  Parishes  in  the  Diocese  reported  .  .  .  .76 
Difficulties  in  New  York  brought  before  the  Clergy  in  Convocation  at 

New  Haven 77 

Last  Annual  Address  of  Bishop  Jarvis  to  the  Convention  .         .         .79 
His  Plea  for  the  future  Support  of  the  Episcopate       .         .         .         .79 
The  general  Poverty  of  the  Church  a  Bar  to  its  respectable  Endow- 
ments       82 

War  declared  by  the  United  States  against  Great  Britain  in  1812       .     82 
New  England  opposed  to  the  Measures  of  the  Administration     .         .     83 
Effects  of  the  War  upon  Churches      .......     84 

Rev.  Henry  Whitlock  chosen  Assistant  Minister  by  Trinity  Church, 
New  Haven     ...........     84 

Death  of  Dr.  Hubbard,  and  Sermon  at  his  Funeral    .         .         .         .85 

Number  of  Ordinations  by  Bishop  Jarvis,  and  his  Predecessor    .         .     86 

Death  of  Bishop  Jarvis 87 

Monument  to  his  Memory  in  Trinity  Church  .  .  .  .  .87 
Sketch  of  his  Character 88 

CHAPTER  Vn. 

ANNUAL   CONVENTION  AT   STRATFORD ;     STYLE   OF   PREACHING  ;    REV. 
JOHN   KEWLEY  ;   AND   PERVERSIONS    TO   ROME. 

A.  D.  1813-1814. 

Sermon  of  Rev.  Tillotson  Bronson  before  the  Annual  Convention  at 

Stratford 91 

Effort  to  increase  the  Fund  for  the  Support  of  the  Episcopate    .         .93 
Election  of  a  Bishop  postponed  ........     94 

Diocesan  Missionary  Society  projected         ......     96 

Sermons  of  Bishop  Seabury  published  .         .         .         .         •         .97 

Style  of  Preaching 99 

Dr.  Kewley's  Sermon  at  the  Anniversary  of  the  Episcopal  Academy     100 
Valedictory  to  his  People  in  Middletown    .         .         .         .         .         .101 

His  Removal  to  New  York,  and  Return  to  the  Church  of  Rome  .  102 
Defections  to  Popery  of  the  Barbers,  Father  and  Son  .  .  .  103 
Followed  by  the  Rev.  Calvin  White 104 


CONTENTS.  XV 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CORNER-STONE  OF  TRINITY  CHURCH,  NEW  HAVEN,  LAID  ;  DEATH  OP 
MR.  WHITLOCK  ]  ELECTION  OP  A  BISHOP  ;  AND  INCREASE  OF  THE 
CHURCH. 

A.  D.  1814-1815. 

PAGE 

Houses  of  Public  Worship  in  New  Haven 106 

Novel  Scheme  devised  to  erect  a  new  Church 107 

Address  of  Rev.  S.  F.  Jarvis  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-stone  of 

Trinity  Church       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .110 

Health  of  Rev.  Mr.  Whitlock  declining 112 

His  Journey  to  a  Southern  Climate,  and  Resignation  of  his  Parish  .  112 
Rev.  Harry  Croswell  chosen  to  be  his  Successor        .         .         .         .113 

Death  of  Mr.  Whitlock 113 

Annual  Convention  in  Middletown 114 

Bishop  Griswold  performing  Episcopal  Duties  in  Connecticut    .         .115 

Rev.  John  Croes  elected  Bishop 116 

Elected  also  Bishop  of  New  Jersey  two  Months  later,  and  consecrated 

for  that  Diocese 117 

Drift  towards  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut  .        .        .        .118 

CHAPTER  IX. 

bishop's  fund  ;  consecration  of  trinity  church  ;   services  op 
bishop  hobart  ;  and  annual  convention. 

A.  D.  1815-1816. 
Bishop's  Fund,  and  Charter  of  the  Phoenix  Bank      .         .         .         .120 

Distribution  of  the  Bonus 121 

Sharp  Controversy  on  the  Subject 122 

Legislature   appropriating   Public  Money  to  different  religious  De- 
nominations   123 

Lottery  Grant  to  the  Trustees  of  Bishop's  Fund  in  Commutation  of 

their  Claim  upon  the  Phoenix  Bank  Bonus 124 

Consecration  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven 125 

Institution  of  Mr.  Croswell  into  the  Rectorship  of  the  Parish  .  .127 
Handsome  gratuity  to  Bishop  Hobart,  and  its  Appropriation  .  .128 
His  visit  to  Cheshire,  and  the  Number  confirmed  there  .  .  .129 
Fashion  in  Connecticut  to  attend  Public  Worship  ....  130 
Effort  to  obtain  a  Charter  for  an  Episcopal  College  renewed  .  .  131 
Bishop  Hobart  invited  to  take  provisional  Charge  of  the  Diocese      .     131 

VOL.   II.  J) 


Xvi  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   X. 

SPECIAL     CONVENTION,   AND    VISITATION     OF     BISHOP    HOBART;    DOC- 
TRINAL controversy;  and  STANDARD  edition  of  the  bible. 

A.  D.  1816-1817. 

PAGE 

Bishop  Hobart  accepts  the  provisional  Charge  of  the  Diocese   .         .133 
Visitation  of  Parishes,  and  Number  of  Persons  confirmed  .         .134 

Address  to  the  Annual  Convention 136 

Candidates  for  Confirmation  not  all  expected  to  become  immediate 

Partakers  of  the  Lord's  Supper 137 

Christian  Education  of  Children  not  neglected 138 

Religious  Revival  and  its  usual  Excitements 139 

Rev.  Menzies  Rayner's  "  Dissertation  upon  Extraordinary  Awaken- 
ings or  Religious  Stirs  "  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .139 

Regeneration,  and  the  Doctrines  of  the  Episcopal  Church  misinter- 
preted ............     142 

Rayner's  Review  of  Mr.  Taylor's  Sermon  and  the  Rejoinder    .        .     143 
"  Saints'  Perseverance "  vindicated  and  established    .         .  .     144 

General  Convention  in  New  York 145 

Mode  of  publishing  authorized  Editions  of  the  Standard  Bible  of  the 
Church  prescribed 146 


CHAPTER   XL 

CONVENTION   AT   GUILFORD ;    ADDRESS    OF    BISHOP    HOBART  ;    VISITA- 
TION ;   AND   AMMI   ROGERS. 

A.  D.  1817. 

Attempt  to  take  an  accurate  List  of  the  Number  of  Souls  belonging 

to  each  Parish       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .147 

Bishop's  Fund,  and  Report  of  the  Treasurer 148 

Inadequate  Provision   for  the  Support  of  the  Clergy,  one  Cause  of 

their  frequent  Removal  from  the  Diocese  .  .  .  .  .150 
"  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge"  formed  .  .151 
The  Effect  of  its  Operations  upon  the  Prosperity  of  the  Church  in 

Connecticut  ...........     152 

Extended  Visitation  of  the  Diocese  by  Bishop  Hobart       .         .         .153 
Attempt  of  Ammi  Rogers  to  be  recognized  by  the  Convention  .     154 

Rev.  Solomon  Blakeslee's  Letter  to  Bishop  Hobart   ....     156 

The   Bishop's  Interview  with  the  Wardens  of  St.  Peter's  Church, 

Hebron 157 


CONTENTS.  Xvii 

PAGE 

Rogers  in  full  Canonicals  coming  out  to  welcome  him  at  the  Door  of 

the  Church 157 

Bishop  Hobart  leaves  the  Town  without  officiating     ....     157 

Rogers  convicted  of  Crime  before  the  Supreme  Court,  and  sentenced 
to  Imprisonment  lor  two  Years      .         .         .         .         .         .         .158 

Memorializes  the  General  Assembly  to  be  released  from  Confinement, 

or  allowed  a  new  Trial .158 

Served  out  his  Sentence,  and  afterwards  published  his  "  Memoirs  "   .     159 
His  Last  Days  and  Death 159 

CHAPTER  XII. 

POLITICAL      REVOLUTION  ;      CHANGE     IN     THE     STATE     GOVERNMENT ; 
ELECTION    SERMON  ;   AND   NEW   CONSTITUTION. 


A.  D.  1817-1818. 

Control  of  the  Government  in  the  Hands  of  the  "  Standing  Order  " 
"  Toleration  party,"  and  political  Revolution     .... 

Oliver  Wolcott  chosen  Governor  of  the  State    .... 

Episcopal  Church  well  represented  in  the  General  Assembly     . 
Election  Sermon  printed  at  the  Public  Expense 

Rev.  Harry  Croswell  requested  to  preach  it  in  1818  —  a  Departure 
from  the  established  Custom  ....... 

Congregational  Ministers  present  on  the  Occasion 

The  religious  Services,  and  Extracts  from  the  Sermon 

Public  Dinner,  and  Remark  of  Rev.  Dr.  Perkins,  of  West  Hartford 

Great  Changes  in  the  Government  of  the  State  contemplated  . 

Governor  Wolcott  on  the  Charter  of  Charles  II.  of  England     . 

The  "  Stand  up  Law  "  unpopular 

Formation  of  a  new  Constitution,  and  its  Adoption  by  the  People 


160 
161 
161 
162 
163 

164 
165 
166 
168 
169 
169 
170 
172 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

PROSPERITY  OF  THE  DIOCESE  ;  CORRESPONDENCE  AMONG  THE  CLERGY  J 
AND   ELECTION   OF   A   BISHOP. 

A.  D.  1818-1819. 

Power  of  Congregationalism  as  a  State  Religion  destroyed  .  .174 
Future  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut  brighter  .  .  .174 
Endowments  for  the  Support  of  religious  Worship  .  .  .  .  1 75 
Bishop  Hobart's  Charge  at  the  Annual  Convention  in  Bridgeport  .  176 
Laymen  chosen  into  the  Standing  Committee  for  the  first  and  last 
Time 177 


XV111  CONTENTS. 


Election  of  a  permanent  Diocesan  agitated       .... 

Correspondence  between  Rev.  Messrs.  Noble  and  Croswell 

Rev.  Bethel  Judd  mentioned  for  the  Episcopate 

Attention  of  the  Clergy  directed  to  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Brownell  . 

His  Election  at  the  Annual  Convention  in  New  Haven  in  1819 

Interview  with  the  Committee,  and  Acceptance  of  the  Office     . 

Treasurer  of  the  Bishop's  Fund  empowered  to  call  upon  the  delin 

quent  Parishes  to  pay  their  Assessments  .... 

Vein  of  Secret  Universalism     ....... 


PAGE 
178 

179 
182 
183 
184 
185 

186 
187 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF   THE   BISHOP  ELECT. 

His  Birth  and  Ancestors  ....*....     189 

A  Schoolmaster  at  the  Age  of  fifteen 190 

Graduates  at  Union  College  with  the  "  Valedictory"        .        .         .     191 
Turns  his  Attention  to  the  Study  of  Theology,  and  pursues  it  under 

the  Tuition  of  Dr.  Nott 191 

Accepts  the  Station  of  Tutor  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  Languages  in 

Union  College 192 

Appointed  a  Professor  in  the  same  Institution  with  Leave  to  spend  a 
Year  in  Europe      .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .193 

Travels  on  Foot  through  the  interior  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ire- 
land        194 

Embarks  in  a  Merchant  Ship  for  New  York 195 

His  Marriage  with  a  Lady  of  the  Episcopal  Church  .         .         .         .196 
Changes  his  Church  Relations,  and  is  baptized  .         .         .  '      .         .196 

Admitted  to  Holy  Orders  by  Bishop  Hobart 197 

Spends  a  Winter  in  the  Southern  States  to  recover  from  an  Affection 
of  the  Lungs  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .197 

Returns  with  restored  Health,  and  is  chosen  an  Assistant  Minister  of 

Trinity  Church,  New  York 198 

His  Election  to  be  Bishop  of  Connecticut .         .....     198 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    CHURCH    DEFENDED;    COVERT    ATTACKS;   "SERIOUS    CALL  ]"   AND 
"  SOBER    APPEAL." 

A.  D.  1819. 

"  Plain  Reasons  for  relying  on  Presbyterian  Ordination  "          .        .     200 
Mr.  Judd's  Answer  under   the  Title  of  "  Presbyterian  Ordination 
Doubtful" 201 


CONTENTS.  Xix 

PASS 

Wilson's  "  Review  of  the  Letters  of  the  late  Eev.  John  Bowden, 

D.  D." 203 

Extracts  from  the  Election  Sermon  of  Dr.  Stiles  ....  204 
Dissenters  in  England  remonstrating  against  allowing  Lay  Ordination 

in  this  Country 205 

"  Serious  Call "  —  an  ironical  Pamphlet  published  without  Name  or 

Imprint •  207 

Answered  in  a  "  Sober  Appeal  to  the  Christian  Public,"  by  the  Rector 

of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven 210 

Reference  to  the  Rules  of  the  Congregational  Order  in  Regard  to  the 

Baptism  of  Infants  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .211 

The  Half-way  Covenant,  and  Letter  of  Dr.  D wight .         .         .         .212 

Appearance  of  two  Pamphlets  in  Support  of  the  "  Serious  Call"       .  213 

No  Rejoinder  by  the  Author  of  the  "  Sober  Appeal  "...  214 

Case  of  Hector  Humphreys 214 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

SPECIAL  CONVENTION  ;  CONSECRATION  OF  BR.  BROWNELL  ;  GENERAL 
THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY  ;  AND  REVIVAL  OF  THE  CHURCHMAN'S 
MAGAZINE. 

A.  D.  1819-1821. 

Number  of  Clergymen  and  Lay  Delegates  present  at  the  Special 

Convention 216 

Report  of  the  Principal  of  the  Episcopal  Academy    ....  216 

Sermon  of  Bishop  White  at  the  Consecration  of  Dr.  Brownell  .  217 
Formal  Relinquishment  by  Bishop  Hobart  of  his  Provisional  Charge 

of  the  Diocese        ..........  218 

Address  of  Thanks  to  him  by  a  Committee  of  the  Convention  .  .  219 
Recognition  of  Bishop  Brownell,  and  his  Reply  to  the  Welcome  of 

the  Diocese 220 

His  Removal  to  Hartford,  and  Commencement  of  his  official  Duties  .  221 

Number  of  Candidates  for  Holy  Orders 222 

General    Theological    Seminary   transferred   from   New  York,  and 

located  in  New  Haven 223 

Opened  with  an  Inaugural  Address  by  Dr.  Turner  ....  224 
Bishop   Brownell  removes  to   New  Haven,  and   takes  Part  in  the 

Instruction  of  the  Students 224 

Legacy  of  Jacob  Sherred  for  Theological  Education  in  the  Episcopal 

Church 226 

Return  of  the  Seminary  to  New  York,  to  secure  the  Bequest    .         .227 

Revival  of  the  "  Churchman's  Magazine  " 227 


XX  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Houses  of  public  Worship  constructed  without  Regard  to  warming 

them  in  the  Winter 228 

Comforts  of  these  Days  as  compared  with  those  of  our  Forefathers    .     229 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

MANNER      OF      PERFORMING      DIVINE      SERVICE  ;       SUNDAY-SCHOOLS  ; 
CHARGE   OF    THE    BISHOP;    AND   PROSPERITY   OF    THE   DIOCESE. 

A.  D.  1821-1823. 

Laxity  in  the  Rubrical  Observances  of  the  Clergy     .         .         .         .231 

Inconvenient  Chancel  Arrangements         ......  231 

Resolutions  adopted  by  the  Convocation  to  secure  Uniformity  in  the 

Manner  of  conducting  Divine  Service  ......  232 

Dr.  Smith's  "  Churchman's  Choral  Companion  to  his  Prayer  Book  "  .  233 
Organs  in  the  Churches,  and  Introduction  of  Chanting     .         .         .  234 
Robert  Raikes  of  Gloucester,  England,  the  Originator  of  Sunday- 
schools            ...........  235 

First  undertaken  in  Connecticut  by  benevolent   Christians  without 
Regard  to  Denominational  Differences  .         .         .         .         .         .237 

"  General  Protestant  Episcopal  Sunday-school  Union  "  established    .  238 
Annual  Convention  at  Waterbury  in  1821,  and  Primary  charge  of 

the  Bishop 239 

Extracts  from  the  Charge 240 

Names  of  venerable  Clergymen  disappear  from  the  List    .         .         .  243 

Revision  of  the  Constitution  and  Canons  of  the  Diocese    .         .         .  243 

Bishop  Brownell's  "  Commentary  on  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  "  244 

Extract  from  his  Address  to  the  Convention  of  1821           .         .         .  244 

His  Testimony  that  the  Clergy  are  everywhere  zealous  and  faithful  .  244 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

CHARTER     OF     A     COLLEGE  ;     OPPOSITION     TO      ITS     ESTABLISHMENT  J 
CHANGES   IN    THE   CLERGY  ;   AND   DEATH   OF   DR.    BRONSON. 

A.  D.  1823-1826. 

Circulation  of  a  Memorial  in  the  Diocese  for  Signatures,  petitioning 

the  General  Assembly  for  the  Charter  of  an  Episcopal  College      .  246 

The  Charter  granted 247 

Institution  located  in  Hartford,  and  College  Buildings  commenced     .  249 
One  of  the  Trustees  deputed  to  visit  England  and  solicit  Donations 

for  the  Library  and  Philosophical  Department       ....  249 


CONTENTS.  XXi 

PAGE 

Anonymous  Pamphlets  and  their  Spirit 250 

Bishop  Brownell  the  first  President  of  the  College     ....  251 

Its  Graduates  taking  Orders  in  the  Church,  and  radiating  in  all  Di- 
rections of  the  Country          ........  252 

Frequent  Changes  in  the  Location  of  the  rural  Clergy      .        .         .  253 

Extract  from  Bishop  Brownell's  Address  to  the  Convention  in  1825  .  253 
Two   neighboring   Presbyters,  Philo  Shelton,  and  Ashbel  Baldwin, 

resign  their  Cures  ..........  255 

Death  of  Mr.  Shelton 256 

His  Departure  followed  by  that  of  Dr.  Bronson         .         .                   .  257 
Dr.  Bronson's  Letter  to  the  Annual  Convention  at  Newtown   .         .257 

His  Character  and  Attainments 258 

Publication    of   the   "  Churchman's    Magazine "  discontinued,  and 

"  Episcopal  Watchman  "  commenced      ......  259 

Pernicious  effects  of  Universalism,  Fatalism,  and  Fanaticism     .         .  259 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

SUPPORT   OF   THE   EPISCOPATE  ;     ACADEMY    AT    CHESHIRE  ;     MENZIES 
RAYNER,   AND   HIS   SUSPENSION   FROM   THE   MINISTRY. 

A.  D.  1826-1828. 

L«oss  of  the  Bishop's  Fund  by  the  Failure  of  the  Eagle  Bank   .         .261 
Annual  Deficiency  in  the  Bishop's  Salary  .         .         .         .         .261 

Rev.  Stephen  Jewett  appointed  to  visit  the  delinquent  Parishes,  and 
make  a  Settlement  of  their  Arrearages  .         .         .         .         .         .262 

Other  Losses  by  the  Failure  of  the  Eagle  Bank        ....  263 

Episcopal  Academy  closed  for  a  time         ......  263 

Remarks  of  Bishop  Brownell  upon  it  in  his  Address  of  1829,  referred 

to  a  Committee      ..........  265 

Rev.  Christian  F.  Cruse,  appointed  to  the  Charge  of  the  Academy  .  265 

Arrangement  of  the  Parishes  of  the  Diocese  into  Cures    .         .         .  266 

The  "  Church  Scholarship  Society  "  founded      .....  266 

First  Report  of  the  Board  of  Directors 267 

New  Canon  for  the  Trial  of  Clergymen  charged  with  Offences          .  269 
The  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner,  the  first  to  fall  under  its  Operation          .  270 
His  Defence  of  Universalism,  and  his  Lawsuits           ....  271 
Episcopalians  of  Ripton   and   New  Stratford,  originally  one  incor- 
porated Society,  divided  into  two  Parishes 272 

Mr.  Rayner's  Connection  with  Ripton  dissolved,  and  his  Removal  to 

the  other  Parish   . 272 

Chai'ged  before  the  Standing  Committee  with  offensive  Teachings, 

and  Conduct  unbecoming  the  Character  of  a  Christian  Minister    .  273 


Xxii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Renounces  his  Ministry  in  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  is  canonically 

suspended 274 

Accepts  a  Call  from  the  Universalist  Society  in  Hartford  .        .274 


CHAPTER  XX. 

NEW  PARISHES  ;    PROPOSED    CHANGES    IN    THE     LITURGY  ;    VISIT    OP 
THE     BISHOP     TO     THE     SOUTHWESTERN     STATES  ;     AND     LACK    OF 


CLERGYMEN. 


A.  D.  1828-1831. 


Erection  of  larger  and  more  substantial  Churches  ....  276 
Mr.  Wheaton's  Address  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner-stone  of  Christ 

Church,  Hartford 276 

Churches  erected  under  the  Auspices  of  Rev.  George  B.  Andrews  .  277 
New  Parishes  in  Pomfret,  and  Hitchcocksville  .  .  .278 
A  Chapel  of  Ease  for  Trinity  Parish,  New  Haven,  built   .                  .279 

Bishop  Brownell  receives  pressing  Calls  for  Missionary  Services        .  279 

Parishes  at  Windham  and  Saybrook  organized          ....  280 

Report  of  a  Committee  on  the  State  of  the  Church  in  the  Diocese  .  281 
Certain  Changes  in  the  Liturgy  proposed  by  the  General  Convention 

of  1826 282 

Not  acceptable  to  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  and  rejected  at  the 

Annual  Convention 284 

Bishop  Brownell's  Sermon  before  the  "  Domestic  and  Foreign  Mis- 
sionary Society,"  in  1829 285 

His  Visit  to  the  Southwestern  States,  at  the  Request  of  its  Directors  285 
Presided  at  Conventions  held  for  organizing  the  Church  in  Louisiana 

and  Alabama 286 

Return  Home,  having  accomplished  a  Tour  of  about  six  thousand 

Miles 288 

Growth  of  the  Church  greater  than  the  Supply  of  faithful  Laborers  .  288 
Establishment  of  an  Academy  in  Hartford,  under  the  Charge  of  Rev. 

Reuben  Sherwood 289 

Frequent  Changes  in  the  Location  of  the  Clergy,  and  their  Cause  .  289 
Propensity  of  the  Young  for  popular  Preaching        .        ■        .         .291 


CONTENTS.  xxiii 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

RETIREMENT  OF  THE  BISHOP  FROM  THE  PRESIDENCY  OF  THE  COL- 
LEGE ;  CHARGE  TO  THE  CLERGY  ;  AND  GENERAL  MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY   OF   THE    CHURCH. 

A.  D.  1831-1835. 

PAGE 

Movement  to  withdraw  the  Bishop  from  the  College,  that  he  might 

devote  himself  exclusively  to  the  Pastoral  Care  of  the  Diocese      .  292 

His  Salary  increased  to  Eighteen  Hundred  Dollars  per  annum         .  293 
The  Income  of  the  Fund  insufficient  to  meet  it,  and  Parishes  assessed 

to  make  up  the  Deficiency 293 

Resigns  the  Presidency,  and  delivers  a  "  Farewell  Address  "  to  the 

Students  on  retiring       .........  294 

Second  Charge  to  the  Clergy 295 

A  Season  of  Revival,  and  the  Duty  of  the  Clergy     ....  297 

Extravagances  of  the  Pious  detrimental  to  true  Religion  .         .         .  299 

Rev.  Bethel  Judd  appointed  Principal  of  the  Episcopal  Academy     .  300 
Visionary  Project  of  providing  for  the  Support  of  necessitous  Young 

Men 300 

Meeting  of  the  Annual  Convention  changed  from  June  to  October  .  301 
Appointed  to  be  held  in  Norwich  in  1833,  and  no  Quorum  .  .  302 
Melancholy  Accident  on  the  Connecticut  River  ....  302 
Bishop  Brownell  sails  for  New  Orleans  in  the  Autumn  of  1834  .  303 
The  General  Convention  recognizing  the  Church  as  the  great  Mis- 
sionary Society 304 

Bishop  Brownell's  Plea  for  building  up  the  Church  at  Home      .         .  305 

The  Diocesan  Convention  of  1835,  thoroughly  Missionary  in  its  Tone  307 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

USE  OF  THE  GENERAL  CONFESSION  ;  THIRD  CHARGE  OF  THE  BISHOP; 
ANOTHER  VISIT  TO  NEW  ORLEANS  ;  AND  MAINTENANCE  OF  THE 
CLERGY. 

A.  D.  1835-1840. 

Opinion  of  the  House  of  Bishops  on  the  Use  of  the  General  Confes- 
sion        308 

Further  Opinion  about  the  Minister  uniting  with  the  People  in  say- 
ing "  Amen  " 309 

Proposed  Changes  carried  into  Effect  in  Connecticut        .        .         .     309 

Third  Charge  of  Bishop  Brownell 309 

Extract  from  the  Sermon  of  Dr.  Jarvis  before  the  Church  Scholar- 
ship Society 310 


xxiv  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Great  want  of  the  Church  —  the  Want  of  more  Ministers  .  .311 
Bishop  Brownell's  Third  Journey  to  New  Orleans  ....  313 
Dr.  Wheaton  accepts  the  Rectorship  of  Christ  Church  in  that  City  .  313 
Constitution  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  revised,  and  Rev.  Allen  C. 

Morgan  appointed  Principal 314 

Annual  Meeting  of  the  Convention  put  back  to  June         .         .         .     315 

New  Parishes  and  new  Churches 315 

The  Bishop  not  expected  to  visit  each  Parish  every  Year  .         .317 

Publication  of  "  Episcopal  Watchman  "  discontinued  .  .  .  318 
A.  B.  Chapin,  and  the  "  Chronicle  of  the  Church  "  .  .  .  .318 
Increase  of  Candidates   for  Holy  Orders  in  Connecticut,    without 

adding  to  the  List  of  Parochial  Clergy  .  ...     319 

Insufficient  Salaries,  and  Bishop  Brownell's  Appeal  to  the  Laity  on 

the  Subject 320 

CHAPTER   XXIII. 

EDUCATION    IN    THE    CHURCH  ;     OXFORD     TRACTS  ;    FOURTH    CHARGE 
OF    BISHOP   BROWNELL  ;    AND   NEW   PARISHES. 

A.  D.  1840-1843. 

Fashion  of  Family  Boarding-schools 323 

Report  of  a  Committee  of  the  Diocesan  Convention  on  the  Subject  of 

Education 324 

Establishment  of  Female  Seminaries  by  Christian  Women         .         .  325 

Theological  Movement  in  England 326 

Appearance  of  the  Oxford  Tracts  in  this  Country     .         .         .         .326 

Controversies  about  them,  and  Bishop  Brownell's  Address  .  .  327 
Fourth  and  last   Charge  of  the  Bishop  —  entitled  "  Errors  of  the 

Times" 329 

The  general  Exercise  of  Private  Judgment,  the  Right  of  every  Man  330 

Evils  arising  from  the  Abuse  of  this  Right 331 

Baptismal  Regeneration,  as  held  by  the  Church,  misapprehended  .  332 
Doctrinal  Views  of  the  Continental  Reformers,  and  of  Westminster 

and  New  England  Divines     .         .         .         .         •         •         •         .333 

Hostility  of  other  Denominations  to  the  Charge  of  the  Bishop  .  .  333 
Errors  of  the  Day,  and  Controversies  about  the  Oxford  Tracts,  not 

preventing  the  Erection  of  new  Churches,  and  Organization  of 

new  Parishes          ..........  335 

Sermon  of  Rev.  Mr.  Burgess,  at  the   Consecration   of  St.  John's 

Church,  Hartford 336 


CONTENTS.  XXV 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

INCREASE    IN    THE     NUMBER    OF    THE   CLERGY  ;    MOVEMENT    FOR   AN 

ASSISTANT     BISHOP;     DEATH    OF    REV.    A8HBEL   BALDWIN  J    AND  IM- 
PROVED   STYLE   OF    ECCLESIASTICAL    ARCHITECTURE. 

A.  D.  1843-1848. 

PAGE 

One  hundred  Clergymen  residing  in  the  Diocese         ....  338 
"  Report  on  the  State  of  the  Church,"  to  the  General  Convention  in 

1844 339 

Official  Acts  of  Bishop  Brownell  for  a  quarter  of  a  Century      .         .  340 

Age  and  Infirmity  unfitting  him  for  the  Care  of  all  the  Churches       .  341 
Contemplates  applying  to  the  Convention,  for  the  Election  of  an 
Assistant  Bishop    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .342 

Health  improved,  and  the  Subject  postponed  indefinitely  .         .        .  343 
"  Trustees  of  the  Aged  and  Infirm  Clergy,  and  Widows'  Fund  "  in- 
corporated        345 

Death  of  Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin 345 

Story  of  his  Conversion  to  Episcopacy       ......  345 

His  Position  in  the  Diocese,  and  Character 346 

Affecting  Letter  to  Bishop  Brownell  taking  Leave  of  the  Convention  347 

Separation  of  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New  Haven,  from  Trinity  Parish    .  348 

Improved  Style  of  Ecclesiastical  Architecture            ....  349 

Costly  Churches  built  at  Waterbury,  Norwich,  and  New  London       .  350 

New  Church  at  Meriden  consecrated 351 

Outward  Growth  of  the  Diocese  accompanied  by  Signs  of  increasing 

Piety 352 

Rev.  George  Burgess,  D.  D.,  elected  Bishop  of  Maine        .        .        .  352 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

MISSIONARY     AND     CHARITABLE     CONTRIBUTIONS  ;      CONVENTION  AT 

NEW   LONDON  ;    ADDRESS    OF     THE     BISHOP  J     AND     TENDENCIES  TO 
ROMANISM. 

A.  D.  1848-1851. 

Increasing  Contributions  for  Missionary  and  Charitable  Purposes      .  353 
Number  of  Towns  and  Villages  in  Connecticut  without  Houses  of 

Episcopal  Worship 354 

Annual  Convention  at  New  London          ......  354 

Consecration  of  the  new  Church,  and  Sermon  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wil- 
liams        355 

Appearance  of  Romish  Tendencies  among  certain  Individuals  .         .  356 


363 
365 
366 
367 
368 


XXvi  CONTENTS. 

PACK 

"  A  Voice  from  Connecticut "  by  Rev.  Dr.  Jarvis  ....  356 
Sharp  Articles  in  the  Church  Periodical  of  Connecticut  .  .  •  357 
Address  of  Bishop  Brownell  on  the  Movements  of  the  Romanizers  .  357 
The  Doctrine  of  Catholic  Unity  made  to  perplex  the  Unwary  .         .361 

Auricular  Confession  and  Priestly  Absolution 

The  Performance  of  the  Ritual  of  the  Church  . 
"  Yearning  after  greater  Holiness  "  . 
Romanizers  comprising  Laymen  as  well  as  Clergymen 
Reference  of  the  Bishop's  Address  to  a  Committee    . 
Unanimity  of  the  Convention  in  sustaining  his  Views 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 

DEATHS   AMONG    THE    CLERGY  ;    ELECTION    OF    AN    ASSISTANT    BISHOP  J 
AND    THEOLOGICAL    EDUCATION    IN   THE    DIOCESE. 

A.  D.  1851-1853. 

Decease  of  Isaac  Jones  and  Truman  Marsh 369 

Death  of  Dr.  Jarvis  —  "  Historiographer  of  the  Church  "  .         .         .370 

His  Scholarship  and  theological  Attainments 370 

Death  of  Daniel  Burhans,  D.  D.,  the  oldest  Presbyter  of  the  Diocese  371 
Third  Jubilee  of  the  "  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 

Foreign  Parts " 371 

Letter  of  the  Archbishop  of   Canterbury,  to   the  Bishops   of  the 

Church  in  this  Country,  proposing  a  joint  Celebration  .  .  .  372 
The    Church  in   Connecticut  many  Reasons  to  be  grateful  to  the 

Society  ......••••••     372 

House  of  Bishops  depute  two  of  their  Number  to  visit  England,  and 

join  in  the  closing  Services  of  the  Jubilee 373 

Extract  from  the  Sermon  of  the  Bishop  of  Oxford     .         .         .         .374 

Increasing  Infirmities  of  Bishop  Brownell,  and  his  Call  for  an  As- 
sistant  .......•••••     375 

Election  of  Rev.  John  Williams,  D.  D.,  as  Assistant  Bishop  of  the 

Diocese,  and  his  Acceptance  of  the  Office  .  .  •  •  .377 
His  Consecration  in  St.  John's  Church,  Hartford  ....  378 
Theological  Department  in  Trinity  College  established      .         .         .379 

Bishop  Williams  resigns  the  Presidency  of  it 380 

His   Removal  to  Middletown,  and  the   Charter  of  the  "Berkeley 

Divinity  School" 380 

Usefulness  of  Trinity  College,  and  the  Theological  School  .  .  381 
Endowment  of  the  College  increased 382 


CONTENTS.  xxvii 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

NEW  PARISHES  AND  NEW  CHURCHES  ;  GENERAL,  CONVENTION  ;  FUND 
FOR  THE  SUPPORT  OF  THE  EPISCOPATE  ;  AND  SALARIES  OF  THE 
CLERGY. 

A.  D.  1853-1857. 

PAGE 

Rapid  Advancement  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  ....  383 

Building  of  better  Churches  and  Improvement  of  the  old  ones  .         .  384 

New  Parochial  Organizations 385 

Christ  Church,  Bridgeport,  and  St.  Paul's,  Fairfield,  formed  .  .387 
Bishop  Brownell  becomes  the  Senior  and  Presiding  Bishop  of  the 

Church  in  the  United  States 388 

Abandonment  of  our  Communion  by  Dr.  Ives,  late  Bishop  of  North 

Carolina 389 

Two  Missionary  Bishops  consecrated  for  the  Pacific  Coast          .         .  389 

Pastoral  Letter  of  the  House  of  Bishops  ....         J         .  390 

Immigration  of  Roman  Catholics  to  this  Country  ....  391 
Support  of  the  Assistant  Bishop  not  provided  for  at  the  time  of  his 

Election 392 

Trustees  of  the  Bishop's  Fund  petition   for  an  alteration  in  their 

Charter 393 

Vote  of  the  Convention  to  pay  the  Assistant  Bishop  Twenty-five 

Hundred  Dollars  per  Annum 394 

His  Salary  increased  .        .         .         .         .        .         .         .         .395 

Report  of  a  Committee  of  Laymen  on  Salaries  of  the  Clergy   .        .  396 

The  rural  Rectory 397 


•  CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PROGRESS   OF   THE   DIOCESE;   DEATH  OF  DR.  CROSWELL;  NEW  CHURCH 

AT   STRATFORD  ;    AND    EFFORTS    TO   INCREASE   THE   RANKS   OF  THE 
MINISTRY. 

A.  D.  1857-1860. 

Clerical  Force  of  the  Diocese 398 

A  remarkable  Religious  Interest 399 

Results  of  it  in  the  Episcopal  Church 400 

Dr.  Croswell's  fortieth  Anniversary  Sermon 401 

His  Death 402 

Sketch  of  his  Life  and  Character 403 

Death  of  Rev.  Z.  H.  Mansfield 405 

New  Church  in  Stratford 406 


XXViii  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Scene  at  the  Time  of  the  Consecration  contrasted  with  the  Entrance 

into  the  Village  of  Heathcote  and  Muirson 407 

New  Parishes  and  new  Churches 408 

Number  of  Candidates  for  Holy  Orders 409 

"  Society  for  the  Increase  of  the  Ministry  "  formed   .         .         .         .410 

The  great  Necessity  for  more  Ministers      .         .         .         .         .         .411 

Extract  from  Sermon  of  Bishop  Williams  before  Diocesan  Conven- 
tion         412 

CHAPTER   XXIX. 

convention    at    new    london;    diocesan    missions;    episcopal 
duties;  civil  war;  and  deaths  among  the  clergy. 

A.  D.  1860-1862. 

Greater  Efficiency  in  the  Work  of  Diocesan  Missions  urged       .         .413 

Report  of  a  Special  Committee  on  the  Subject           ....  414 
Public    Services   appointed   by   the    Convention  to   awaken    more 

Interest 415 

The  Result  of  the  new  Movements 416 

Summary  View  of  Episcopal  Duties  for  a  Period  of  Ten  Years         .  417 

Occurrence  of  new  and  startling  Events   ......  419 

Address  of  Bishop  Williams  on  the  National  Troubles       .         .         .  420 

Honoring  and  obeying  the  Civil  Authority  taught  by  our  Church       .  421 

The  Clergy  subjected  to  Drafts  for  Troops         .....  423 

Gifts  to  Christian  Charities  increased        ......  423 

Deaths  among  the  elder  Clergy          .......  424 

Sketch  of  the  Life  of  Rev.  Dr.  Wheaton 425 

His  Benefactions  to  his  Native  Parish  and  to  Trinity  College    .         .  426 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

MORE  NEW   CHURCHES   AND   PARISHES;   PROVISION   FOR   THE   CLERGY; 
DONATIONS    AND    BEQUESTS     FOR    CHURCH    PURPOSES;     PROLONGED 

rectorships;  and  DEATH  of  bishop  brownell. 


A.  D.  1862-1865. 

Consecration  of  Trinity  Church,  Southport 

New  Stone  Church  for  the  ancient  Parish  at  Brooklyn  begun 

New  Parochial  Organizations    ...... 

Memorial  Church  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  Westport 

Trinity  Church,  Bridgeport,  formed  . 

Its  Admission  into  Union  with  the  Convention  opposed 


428 
429 
430 
431 
431 
432 


CONTENTS.  Xxix 

PAGE 

Church  Homes  for  Aged  and  Destitute  Women         ....  433 
Pastoral  Letter  to  the  Laity  on  the  Straitened  Condition  of  many 

of  the  Clergy 434 

"  Trustees  of  Donations   and  Bequests  for  Church  Purposes,"  char- 
tered        435 

Candidates  for  Confirmation  and  new  Communicants         .         .         .  436 

Number  of  Clergy  in  the  Diocese 437 

Prolonged  Rectorships       .........  438 

Death  of  Bishop  Brownell 439 

Address  of  Dr.  Burgess  at  his  Funeral 440 

Growth  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  under  his  Episcopate       .         .  441 

Brief  Outline  of  his  Character 442 


APPENDIX  A. 

Letter  of  Bishop  Claggett  to  Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin,  Secretary  of  the 
Diocese  of  Connecticut 447 

APPENDIX  B. 

Final  Decision  of  the  House  of  Bishops  in  the  Case  of  Ammi  Rogers    451 

APPENDIX   C. 

Letter  of  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner  renouncing  the  Ministry          .         .     453 
Record  of  his  Suspension  by  Bishop  Brownell 454 


Index. 


HISTORY 


OF    THE 


EPISCOPAL  CHURCH  IN  CONNECTICUT. 


CHAPTER   I. 


ELECTION  OF  A  SUCCESSOR  TO  BISHOP  SEABURY,  AND  CONSE- 
CRATION OF  THE  REV.  ABRAHAM  JARVIS  TO  THE  EPISCOPATE 
OF  CONNECTICUT. 

a.  d.  1796-1799. 

The  Church  in  Connecticut,  upon  the  death  of 
Bishop  Seabury,  was  embarrassed  in  the  selection  of 
his  successor  by  the  want  of  an  Episcopal  fund.  The 
petitions  to  the  Legislature  for  a  charter  empowering 
a  certain  number  of  trustees  to  receive  and  hold  do- 
nations for  the  support  of  the  Episcopate,  had  not  yet 
been  granted,  and  the  parishes  had  made  no  adequate 
provision  for  this  object.  Many  of  them,  in  their  pov- 
erty, confined  their  obligations  to  the  maintenance  of 
their  rectors,  and  it  was  natural,  therefore,  in  choos- 
ing a  bishop,  to  direct  attention  to  those  clergymen  in 
Connecticut,  who,  with  suitable  qualities  of  head  and 
heart,  were  in  circumstances  or  occupied  positions 
which  would  enable  them  to  live  and  perform  Episco- 
pal duties  without  expecting  much,  if  anything,  from 
the  Diocese  in  the  way  of  pecuniary  support. 

The   Constitution,  adopted  in  1792,  required   the 

VOL.  II.  l 


2  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Presbyters,  Deacons,  and  Lay  Deputies,  from  the  sev- 
eral parishes,  to  meet  within  three  months  from  the 
time  when  a  vacancy  shall  occur,  either  at  New  Haven 
or  Micldletown,  and  "  select  a  person  to  fill  the  Epis- 
copal chair."  Accordingly,  a  special  Convention,  com- 
posed of  twenty-two  clergymen  and  twenty-six  lay- 
men, —  the  largest  number  which  had  yet  assembled 
in  this  form,  —  was  held  in  Trinity  Church,  New 
Haven,  May  5th,  1796,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jarvis  deliv- 
ered on  the  occasion  a  "  well-adapted  sermon,"  having 
reference  to  the  late  Diocesan,  a  copy  of  which  was 
requested  for  publication.  Printed  minutes  never 
give  the  whole  proceedings  of  a  deliberative  body, 
and  in  this  case  there  appears  to  be  unusual  brevity. 
The  two  orders  separated  for  the  purpose  of  free  con- 
sultation, and  soon  it  was  discovered  that  the  clergy, 
though  wishing  to  choose  one  of  their  own  number, 
were  divided  in  their  preferences  and  unable  to  come 
to  a  unanimous  vote.  Mr.  Bowden,  the  most  schol- 
arly among  them,  and  the  best  fitted  in  many  respects 
for  the  office,  declined  to  be  a  candidate ;  and  Mr. 
Jarvis,  after  a  succession  of  ballotings,  was  declared 
to  be  elected.  When  the  result  was  communicated 
to  the  lay  delegates,  they  debated  long  and  earnestly 
about  the  manner  of  proceeding,  and  finally  agreed 
upon  the  bold  and  somewhat  extraordinary  method 
of  giving  in  their  yeas  and  nays  with  their  names 
annexed.  A  majority  of  two  only  appeared  in  favor 
of  confirming  the  choice  of  the  clergy,  and,  unfortu- 
nately for  the  Bishop  elect,  the  most  influential  lay- 
men were  not  included  in  this  majority.1     The  subse- 

i  MS.  letter  from  Rev.  Abraham  L.  Clarke  to  Dr.  Parker  of  Boston, 
May  10th,  1796. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  3 

quent  action  in  the  whole  Convention  was  far  from 
being  unanimous,  and  no  cordial  and  liberal  measures 
were  adopted  to  encourage  Mr.  Jarvis  to  accept  the 
appointment.  He  was  ready,  therefore,  when  waited 
upon  for  his  answer,  to  say  that  he  declined  the  office 
to  which  he  had  been  chosen ;  and  the  Convention 
adjourned  to  meet  again  in  the  same  place  and  for 
the  same  purpose,  in  the  ensuing  October,  having- 
first  appointed  a  new  Committee  to  "  memorialize  the 
General  Assembly  for  an  act  of  incorporation  to 
establish  a  fund  for  the  support  of  the  Bishop  of 
Connecticut." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Annual  Convention,  fixed  as 
now  for  the  month  of  June,  was  held  at  Cheshire  ; 
but  so  little  interest  was  manifested  in  its  proceedings 
that  twelve  clergymen  only,  and  half  as  many  lay 
delegates  were  present.  The  principal  subject  of 
their  deliberations  was  the  reported  Constitution  for 
the  Episcopal  Academy,  already  established  in  that 
village,  and  no  sooner  had  it  been  approved  and  a 
board  of  twenty-one  Trustees  appointed  under  it,  than 
the  Convention,  which  originally  had  this  power,  pro- 
ceeded to  the  election  of  a  Principal  of  the  Institu- 
tion. The  ballots  were  all  in  favor  of  the  Rev.  John 
Bowden,  who  signified  at  once  his  acceptance  of  the 
office.  It  was  an  eminently  responsible  position,  for 
the  Academy  thus  founded  was  intended  to  be,  not 
only  a  preparatory  school  of  a  high  order,  but  a  col- 
lege and  a  nursery  of  theological  learning.  The  old 
prejudices  against  Episcopacy  which  characterized  the 
immediate  descendants  of  the  first  settlers  in  New 
England,  were  still  active,  and  the  clergy  felt  most 
painfully  the  want  of  some  literary  institution  where 


4  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  sons  of  the  Church  might  receive  a  thorough 
classical  education  without  endangering  th,e  religious 
predilections  of  their  childhood.  The  Trustees  of 
Yale  College,  ever  since  the  affair  of  Rector  Cutler 
and  his  associates  in  1722,  had  pursued  the  illiberal 
policy  of  preventing  the  admission  of  any  one  as  an 
instructor  therein  who  should  be  suspected  of  "  in- 
clining to  Arminian  or  prelatic  principles."  Grati- 
tude for  Berkeley's  benefactions  and  for  the  gener- 
osity of  that  churchman1  whose  honorable  name  the 
Institution  bears,  had  not  changed  those  severe  statutes 
which  exacted  religious  tests  of  the  officers  of  in- 
struction, and  compelled  Episcopal  students  to  attend 
worship  regularly  in  the  College  Chapel,  except  on 
Communion  Sundays.  Most  of  our  clergy,  at  that 
period,  were  graduates  of  Yale  ;  but  the  affection 
which  they  cherished  for  their  Alma  Mater  was  not  so 
great  as  the  love  they  bore  to  the  Church.  They 
knew  that,  under  God,  her  prosperity  was  to  be  ad- 
vanced by  their  own   energy  and  faithfulness,   and 

1  Jeremiah  Dummer,  agent  of  the  Colony  of  Connecticut,  writing  to 
Gov.  Saltonstall,  from  "Middle  Temple  [London],  14th  April,  1719," 
says :  "  I  heartily  congratulate  you  upon  the  happy  union  of  the  Colony 
in  fixing  the  Colledge  at  New  Haven,  after  some  differences  which  might 
have  been  attended  with  ill  consequences.  Mr.  Yale  is  very  much  rejoyc'd 
at  this  good  news,  and  more  than  a  little  pleas'd  with  his  being  the  Patron 
of  such  a  seat  of  the  Muses.  Saving  that  he  express't  at  first  some  kind 
of  concern,  whether  it  was  well  in  him,  being  a  Churchman,  to  promote 
an  Academy  of  Dissenters.  But  when  we  had  discours't  that  point  freely, 
he  appear'd  convinc't  that  the  business  of  good  men  is  to  spread  religion 
and  learning  among  mankind  without  being  too  fondly  attach't  to  particu- 
lar Tenets,  about  which  the  world  never  was,  nor  never  will  be,  agreed. 
Besides,  if  the  Discipline  of  the  Church  of  England  be  most  agreeable  to 
Scripture  and  primitive  practice,  there  's  no  better  way  to  make  men  sen- 
sible of  it  than  by  giving  them  good  learning."  —  State  Library,  Hartford. 
Extract  from  Document  110  of  vol.  ii.  "  Foreign  Correspondence  with  Co- 
lonial Agents,  1661-1732." 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  5 

much  as  they  desired  to  see  the  number  of  candidates 
for  Holy  Orders  increased,  they  would  not  peril  the 
usefulness  and  respectability  of  the  clerical  profession 
by  lowering  the  standard  of  literary  and  theological 
attainments. 

Mr.  Bowden  was  not  without  experience  in  the 
instruction  and  management  of  youth,  for  since  his  re- 
turn from  the  Island  of  St.  Croix,  —  whither  he  went 
in  the  autumn  of  1789  to  pursue  the  pastoral  work, 
hoping  that  a  residence  in  that  climate  would  benefit 
his  health,  —  he  had  been  in  charge  of  a  private 
school  for  boys  at  Stratford,  and  he  took  the  greater 
part  of  his  pupils  with  him  when  he  removed  to 
Cheshire,  and  entered  upon  his  new  office.  As  the 
friend  of  Seabury,  and  the  able  defender  of  the  Church 
with  his  pen,  he  had,  for  some  time,  exercised  a  com- 
manding influence  among  his  brethren ;  and  when 
the  adjourned  Convention  met  on  the  19th  of  October, 
attention  was  again  turned  to  him  as  the  most  eligri- 
ble  candidate  for  the  Episcopate.  Nineteen  clergy- 
men and  twenty-one  lay  delegates  composed  this  Con- 
vention ;  but  one  third  of  the  laymen  were  new 
members  who  had  never  before  attended  such  meet- 
ings, and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  there  is  no  re- 
corded lay  representation  from  Trinity  Parish,  New 
Haven,  in  whose  church  the  body  assembled,  nor  from 
the  venerable  parish  at  Stratford.  That  the  proceed- 
ings might  be  confined  to  the  object  which  had  called 
them  together,  it  was  "  resolved  that  no  other  busi- 
ness shall  be  done  at  this  adjourned  Convention,  to 
be  recorded,  but  only  the  business  of  electing  a 
bishop."  After  the  two  orders  had  separated,  the 
clergy  cast  their  ballots  unanimously  for  the  Rev.  Mr. 


6  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Bowden,  and  then,  at  his  particular  request,  they 
voted  to  indulge  him  in  giving  a  decisive  answer  on 
his  election  till  the  next '  annual  Convention.  The 
lay  delegates  readily  concurred  in  their  choice  and  in 
their  resolve ;  and  after  the  President  and  Secretary 
had  been  requested  to  make  out  the  testimonials  for 
the  Bishop  elect,  and  sign  them  in  behalf  of  the  Con- 
vention, an  adjournment  took  place  till  the  annual 
meeting  in  June. 

To  these  gleanings  from  the  printed  Journal,  some- 
thing may  be  added  from  the  manuscript  records  of 
the  Convocation  to  show  the  hopes  and  designs  of  the 
clergy.  They  adopted  measures  to  provide  for  the 
expenses  of  the  Bishop  elect  in  obtaining  consecra- 
tion, and  requested  him,  in  his  tour  to  Philadelphia 
for  this  purpose,  to  solicit  aid  of  pious  and  charitable 
persons  or  societies  "  for  the  encouragement,  support, 
and  benefit  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  in  Connecticut." 
Mr.  Baldwin  was  desired  to  be  his  attending  Presbyter, 
and  the  Standing  Committee  were  charged  with  the 
duty  of  replying  to  a  communication  from  the  Church 
in  Rhode  Island,  and  of  inviting  a  continuance  under 
the  same  ecclesiastical  head.  "  Mr.  Bowden's  well- 
known  abilities  and  integrity,"  said  they,  "  if  he  ac- 
cepts the  appointment,  will,  we  trust,  in  some  meas- 
ure repair  the  loss  we  have  sustained,  and  be  a  means 
of  continuing  and  firmly  establishing  that  diocesenal 
unity  which  has  been  so  happily  begun  between  us." 

All  these  proceedings  indicated  a  confidence  on  the 
part  of  the  clergy,  that  the  business  which  had  called 
them  together  was  now  settled,  and  that  the  Diocese 
was  soon  to  be  administered  by  one  whose  learning 
and  talents  they  had  not  failed  to   appreciate  very 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  7 

highly.  But  to  the  adjourned  and  annual  Convention 
held  in  Derby,  June  7th,  1797,  Dr.  Bowden  —  for  by 
this  time  Columbia  College,  of  which  he  was  a  grad- 
uate, had  honored  him  with  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  —  communicated  in  "  writing  his  non-accep- 
tance of  the  Episcopate."  The  chief  reason  that  led 
him  to  this  decision  was  the  weakness  of  his  voice 
and  lungs,  which  he  had  tried  in  vain  to  strengthen, 
and  finally  he  was  compelled  to  relinquish,  for  the 
most  part,  the  public  exercise  of  the  ministry.  Had 
he  been  consecrated,  the  mitre  had  rarely  crowned  a 
worthier  head. 

Steps  were  immediately  taken  to  go  into  another 
election,  and  at  the  appointed  time,  the  lay  members 
withdrew  to  a  separate  apartment,  and  the  clergy 
proceeded  to  ballot  for  a  bishop.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Jarvis, 
who  was  not  present  at  this  Convention,  was  unani- 
mously chosen  by  both  orders,  even  though  there 
were  some  among  the  laity  who  had  strenuously  op- 
posed his  election  at  the  first  special  meeting  held 
after  the  death  of  Bishop  Seabury.  It  must  have 
been  understood  that  such  a  result  would  be  reached, 
and  that  the  candidate,  when  elected  with  entire 
unanimity,  would  accept  the  office.  The  exigencies  of 
the  Church  in  Connecticut  at  that  period  demanded 
a  spiritual  head.  There  was  no  neighboring  bishop 
who  could  be  invited  to  exercise  Episcopal  oversight 
or  make  occasional  visitations.  Provoost,  of  New 
York,  had  not  much  love  for  the  primal  Diocese,  if 
the  clergy  of  it  had  any  love  for  him ;  and  Dr.  Bass, 
who  had  been  consecrated  just  a  month  before  for 
Massachusetts,  was  an  old  man,  already  bending  under 
the  weight  of  seventy  years,  and  retaining  still  the 
charge  of  his  parish  at  Newburyport. 


8  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

Before  the  clergy  dispersed  for  their  homes,  they 
met  by  themselves  in  Convocation,  and  among  other 
resolves  which  they  adopted,  was  this  :  "  That  if  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Jarvis,  the  Bishop  elect,  should  go  to  Phila- 
delphia for  consecration,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Baldwin  be 
requested  to  attend  him ;  and  that  it  be  recommended 
to  the  several  churches  in  the  State  to  have  collec- 
tions for  defraying  the  expenses  of  both,  by  the  first 
Sunday  in  August  next,  and  that  the  money  be  sent 
to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hubbard  by  the  third  of  said  month." 
There  was  some  delay  in  fixing  the  time  and  place  of 
the  consecration  ;  but  when  the  consent  of  a  major 
number  of  the  Standing  Committees  in  the  different 
dioceses  had  been  obtained,  Bishop  White,  who  was 
the  Presiding  Bishop,  acquiesced  in  the  desire  of  Con- 
necticut that  he  and  his  colleagues  would  come  to 
New  Haven  ;  and  accordingly  a  special  Convention  was 
duly  warned  and  held  in  Trinity  Church  on  the  18th 
of  October,  and  sixteen  clergymen  and  twenty-seven 
lay  delegates  were  present  to  participate  in  the  solemn 
services.  The  sermon  on  the  occasion  was  preached 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  who  had  recently  removed 
into  the  Diocese  from  Newport,  R.  I.,  and  taken  charge 
of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Norwalk.  In  England  it  is  the 
common  practice  to  select  a  learned  presbyter  to 
preach  at  the  consecration  of  a  bishop  ;  but  in  this 
country,  since  the  days  of  Dr.  Smith,  with  a  single 
exception,1  no  one  in  the  second  grade  of  the  ministry 
has  been  known  to  perform  such  a  high  duty. 

The  record  in  the  Journal  reads  :  "  The  Right  Rev. 
Dr.  White  acted  as  the  officiating  Bishop,  and  the 
Bishops  Provoost  and  Bass  assisted. 

1  Dr.  Beasley  preached  at  the  consecration  of  Rev.  Philander  Chase. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  9 

"  The  act  of  consecration  being  completed,  the 
Right  Rev.  Dr.  Jarvis1  was  recognized  by  the  Con- 
vention as  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  and  received 
their  congratulations  in  a  very  affectionate  address 
delivered  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Hubbard,  to  which  Bishop 
rJarvis  returned  a  very  suitable  answer.  After  this, 
he  delivered  an  excellent  charge  to  the  clergy  and 
laity  of  his  Diocese."  The  Standing  Committee,  in 
obedience  to  instructions,  prepared  an  address  of 
thanks  to  the  consecrating  bishops,  which,  having 
been  read  to  the  Convention  and  approved,  was  pre- 
sented to  them  with  a  a  gratuity  for  defraying  the 
expenses "  which  they  had  incurred  on  the  occasion. 
"  The  gratuity  they  generously  declined  accepting, 
though  Dr.  Bass  was  at  length  prevailed  on  to  accept 
it."  The  memorial  to  the  General  Assembly  for  an 
act  of  incorporation  to  establish  a  fund  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Episcopate,  was  revived  by  a  new  vote, 
and  measures  were  adopted  to  increase  the  endow- 
ment of  the  Diocesan  Institution  at  Cheshire. 

Thus  terminated  the  interesting  ceremonies  and 
proceedings  which  attended  the  consecration  of  the 
second  Bishop  of  Connecticut.  It  was  a  day  of 
anxiety  mingled  with  cheerful  prospects,  for  the  still 
feeble  parishes  had  more  to  hope  for  than  to  enjoy  in 
their  present  condition.  One  of  the  incidental  fruits 
of  this  occasion  was  quite  unexpected.  Both  the  ser- 
mon of  Dr.  Smith  and  the  charge  of  the  Bishop  were 
requested  for  the  press,  and  the  publication  of  the 
first  of  these  brought  forth  a  letter  from  Mr.  Blatch- 
ford  —  a  Congregational  divine  at  Bridgeport  —  who 

1  Yale  College  conferred  upon  him  the  Doctorate  at  the  previous  com- 
mencement. 


10  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

conceived  himself  to  be  specially  called  upon  to 
renew  the  old  war  against  the  Church,  and  to  fight 
over  again  battles  in  which  his  predecessors  had  won 
no  laurels.  The  Scotch  blood  of  Dr.  Smith  was  thor- 
oughly roused  by  this  fresh  attempt  to  spread  an 
alarm  among  the  people,  and  make  them  look  with 
an  evil  eye  upon  Episcopacy  by  stigmatizing  it  with 
the  opprobrious  epithet  of  Popery.  Under  the  pat- 
ronage, therefore,  of  his  brethren,  he  published  an 
"Answer  to  Mr.  Blatchford's  Letter,"  extending  to 
about  one  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  and  placed  in  the 
title  this  quaint  but  significant  motto,  copied  from  an 
old  volume  of  the  Oxford  University  :  "  Verily,  these 
men  are  like  Samson's  foxes ;  they  have  their  heads 
severed  indeed ;  the  one  sort  looking  toward  the  Pa- 
pacy, the  other  to  the  Presbytery ;  but  they  are  tied 
together  by  the  tails  with  firebrands  between  them, 
to  the  injury  of  the  Church." 

The  "  Answer  "  evinced  great  familiarity  with  ec- 
clesiastical history  and  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the 
points  involved  in  the  discussion.  It  was  written  in 
a  fearless  spirit,  and  though  it  contained  playful 
thrusts  at  his  opponent  and  rambled  over  a  wide  field, 
it  met  the  general  assertions  and  sophistries  of  the 
"  Letter,"  which  Dr.  Smith  said  he  "  would  not  call  A 
Defence  of  '  the  Validity  of  Presbyterian  Ordination, ' 
with  Strictures  on  the  Sermon  delivered  at  Bishop 
Jarvis's  Consecration ;  but  The  Validity  of  Lay  Ordi- 
nation Maintained,  together  with  a  Pasquinade  upon 
Episcopacy." 

At  the  Annual  Convention  of  1798,  held  in  Nor- 
walk,  steps  were  taken  to  provide  for  the  commence- 
ment of  a  fund  for  the  Episcopal  Academy  at  Chesh- 


IK  CONNECTICUT.  11 

ire,  by  ascertaining  the  grand  levy  of  the  Church  in 
Connecticut;  and  the  money  formerly  collected  for 
the  purpose  of  sending  missionaries  to  the  frontiers 
of  the  States  was  voted  to  be  applied  to  the  benefit 
of  the  same  institution.  It  was  also  recommended  to 
the  several  con  ore  nations  in  the  Diocese  to  "  collect 
annually  for  the  use  of  the  Bishop  one  half-penny  on 
the  pound  in  such  way  and  manner  as  to  them  shall 
seem  most  expedient." 

The  Bishop  was  still  in  charge  of  the  parish  at  Mid- 
dletown,  and  this  was  a  measure  which  looked  to  his 
separation  from  parochial  work  and  exclusive  devo- 
tion to  Episcopal  duties.  His  address  to  the  Conven- 
tion at  this  time  was  not  printed  and  there  are  no  con- 
temporary documents  to  show  his  official  acts  or  the 
extent  of  his  visitations.  He  began,  November  1st, 
with  the  consecration  of  St.  John's  Church,  Waterbury, 
a  new  edifice  which  had  been  several  years  in  the  pro- 
cess of  erection.  But  his  first  ordination,  three  weeks 
after  the  meeting  of  this  Convention  and  eight 
months  after  he  had  been  consecrated,  was  held  in  St. 
John's  Church,  Bridgeport,  when  Calvin  White  was 
admitted  to  the  order  of  Deacons  and  subsequently 
became  an  assistant  of  Dr.  Dibblee  at  Stamford  ;  and 
on  the  30th  of  the  ensuing  September,  Bethel  Judd 
and  Ezra  Bradley  were  ordained  to  the  same  grade 
of  the  ministry  in  St.  Peter's  Church,  Cheshire.  Sev- 
eral parishes  in  the  Diocese  were  now  vacant,  and  the 
clergy,  scarcely  yet  beyond  a  score  in  number,1  were 
charged  with  the  oversight  of  neighboring  or  distant 
flocks,  and  to  these  they  officiated  monthly  or  quar- 

1  Rev.  Edward  Blakeslee  died  in  1797,  and  Rev.  Philo  Perry  in  1798, 
the  first  aged  thirty-one  years,  and  the  other  forty-six. 


12  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

terly  according  as  their  convenience  would  admit,  or 
according  to  the  more  pressing  demands  of  the  par- 
ish to  which  their  services  were  first  due.  Trinity 
Church,  New  Haven,  in  voting  a  salary  to  the  Rector 
at  the  Easter  meeting  of  1797,  allowed  him  leave  of 
absence  seven  Sundays  in  the  year,  that  he  might 
officiate  in  West  Haven,  on  condition,  however,  that 
the  Church  in  that  place  paid  to  the  Vestry  of  Trin- 
ity Parish  the  sum  of  fifty  dollars  for  his  services. 
This  arrangement  continued  for  quite  a  period,  but  as 
the  vote  shows,  the  leave  of  absence  was  not  so  much 
for  the  benefit  of  the  Rector  as  for  the  relief  of  the 
parish  in  New  Haven. 

The  adversaries  of  Episcopacy  saw  her  feebleness, 
and  were  proud  to  compare  their  own  prosperous 
communion  and  full-fed  pastors  with  the  weaker  body 
which  preferred  to  worship  Gocl  in  a  Liturgy  and  al- 
ways steadfastly  believed  in  the  Scriptural  character 
of  a  threefold  ministry.  Bishop  Jarvis  was  familiar 
with  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  history  of  Con- 
necticut, and  understood  well  the  nature  of  the  high 
office  to  which  he  had  been  raised.  He  had  all  the 
learning,  and  dignity,  and  firmness  of  his  predecessor, 
but  unlike  him,  he  was  indisposed  to  be  active  ;  and 
he  had  not  the  same  power  to  attract  popular  atten- 
tion and  to  make  his  ministrations  felt  as  he  pursued 
the  noiseless  round  of  his  Episcopal  duties.  An  asth- 
matic difficulty  which  had  troubled  him  from  early 
life  and  increased  upon  him  with  advancing  years, 
made  him  a  poor  traveller,  and  it  is  no  wonder,  if  the 
Church  afterwards  partook  in  some  degree  of  the  in- 
voluntary lethargy  which  crept  upon  her  new  over- 
seer. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  13 

But  the  clergy  were  too  fresh  yet  in  the  recollec- 
tion of  the  severe  trials  through  which  they  had 
passed  to  be  otherwise  than  vigilant,  and  therefore 
every  care  was  taken,  not  only  to  maintain  with  firm- 
ness their  distinct  religious  faith,  but  to  guard  against 
the  encroachments  of  error  and  the  progress  of  scep- 
tical philosophy.  The  strong  sympathy  which  un- 
happily, and  on  no  rational  grounds,  prevailed  in  this 
country  towards  those  who  were  leaders  in  the  late 
French  Revolution,  as  well  as  towards  the  Revolution 
itself,  had  prepared  many  to  become  the  miserable 
dupes  of  their  principles  and  declarations.  "  Of  the 
immeasurable  evils,  under  which  France  and  her  neigh- 
bors agonized,  infidelity  was  the  genuine  source  —  the 
Vesuvius,  from  whose  mouth  issued  those  rivers  of 
destruction  which  deluged  and  ruined  all  things  in 
their  way.  It  was  seen  that  man,  unrestrained  by 
law  and  religion,  is  a  mere  beast  of  prey  ;  that  licen- 
tiousness, although  adorned  with  the  graceful  name 
of  liberty,  is  yet  the  spring  of  continual  alarm,  bond- 
age, and  misery ;  and  that  the  restraints  imposed  by 
equitable  laws,  and  by  the  religion  of  the  Scriptures, 
were  far  less  burthensome  and  distressing  than  the 
boasted  freedom  of  infidels."  1 

Upon  the  accession  of  the  elder  Adams  to  the  Pres- 
idency of  the  United  States,  the  clergy  of  Connecticut 
sent  him  an  address,  expressive  of  their  attachment  to 
the  government  of  their  country  and  their  approbation 
of  the  measures  adopted  by  the  constituted  authorities 
thereof;  and  it  shows  how  much  they  were  alive  to  all 
flagrant  assaults  upon  revealed  truth  that,  at  a  pre- 

1  Pres.  Dwight's  Discourse  on  Events  of  the  Last  Century,  January  7, 
1801,  p.  33. 


14  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

vious  Convocation,  they  directed  a  letter  of  thanks  to 
be  addressed  also  to  Dr.  Watson,  the  learned  Bishop 
of  LandafF,  for  his  noble  "  Apology  for  the  Bible  "  in 
answer  to  Thomas  Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason."  "  Happy 
are  we,"  said  they  in  this  letter,  "  to  find  that  your  ex- 
cellent defence  has  in  a  good  degree  strengthened  the 
faithful,  confirmed  the  doubtful,  roused  the  indifferent, 
and  silenced  the  gainsayer.  And  we  have  reason  to 
believe  that  it  will,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  be  a  means 
of  checking  that  spirit  of  infidelity  among  us  which 
has  produced  such  horrid  scenes  in  a  powerful  nation 
of  Europe."  1 

But  the  pen  of  the  Bishop  of  LandafF2  was  not  the 
only  one  whose  influence  in  vindicating  the  truth  of 
Christianity  was  felt  in  this  country.  "  A  Short  and 
Easy  Method  with  the  Deists,"  by  Charles  Leslie,  hav- 
ing been  widely  circulated,  furnished  churchmen  with 
ready  reasons  for  the  support  of  their  faith.  "  That 
was  a  great  man,"  said  Wm.  Jones  of  Nayland 
writing  to  Dr.  Bowden,3  "  and  one  of  the  great  pat- 
terns from  whom  I  learned  controversial  divinity  in 
my  early  years.  I  desired  a  bookseller  of  London 
to  lay  hold  of  as  many  copies  of  his  works  as  he 
could  find ;  foreseeing  that  they  would  be  called  for. 
'Ah  sir,'  said  he, 'I  could  have  got  you  a  hundred 
copies  a  year  ago ;  but  the  price  was  fallen  so  low, 
that  they  are  now  gone  for  waste  paper.'  They  are 
among  many  other  things  disregarded  by  the  world, 
which  will,  nevertheless,  survive  the  fire  of  the  last 
day." 

1  MS.  original  draught.  2  Now  spelled  Llandaff. 

3  MS.  letter,  February  28,  1799. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  15 


CHAPTER  II. 

REMOVAL  OF  BISHOP  JARVIS  TO  CHESHIRE  ;  ADOPTION  OF  AN  OF- 
FICE OF  INSTITUTION;  AND  EFFORTS  TO  ENDOW  THE  EPISCO- 
PATE. 

a.  d.  1799-1804. 

In  the  autumn  of  1799,  Bishop  Jarvis  resigned  his 
parish  at  Middletown  and  removed  to  Cheshire.  He 
had  already  placed  his  son  at  the  Academy  under  the 
care  of  Dr.  Bowclen,  but  the  hopes  and  affections  of 
the  .parents  were  so  bound  up  in  this  child  of  their 
old  age  that  the  thought  of  continued  separation  from 
him  was  not  to  be  endured.  It  formed  an  additional 
motive  for  his  change  of  residence  that  the  Institu- 
tion was  acquiring,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Church,  reputa- 
tion and  influence  as  a  nursery  of  learning,  and  he 
perceived  the  obvious  propriety  of  being  near  to 
watch  its  infant  progress  and  support  its  ecclesiasti- 
cal character.  Accordingly  he  built  for  himself  a 
suitable  house  in  Cheshire,  and  the  village  so  beauti- 
ful and  attractive  by  nature  became,  for  a  time,  the 
general  centre  of  diocesan  interests. 

The  Academy  prospered  under  the  management  of 
its  scholarly  Principal,  and  not  only  were  contribu- 
tions for  its  benefit  obtained  from  New  York,  but 
the  Annual  Convention  of  1799,  held  in  Stratfield,  de- 
clared it  to  be  the  duty  of  each  clergyman  in  the 
Diocese,  together  with  some   respectable  layman  in 


16  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

his  parish,  to  visit  by  a  specified  day  as  many  of  the 
parishioners  as  possible  and  solicit  "individual  dona- 
tions from  them  for  the  use  of  the  Episcopal  Acad- 
emy." The  vacant  churches  were  not  overlooked  in 
this  attempt  to  raise  money,  for  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee was  directed  to  communicate  with  them  and 
invite  their  cooperation.  The  same  Convention  voted 
also  that  "one  or  more  agents  be  appointed  by  the 
Trustees  .  .  to  go  to  Europe  for  the  purpose  of  solicit- 
ing donations,"  as  soon  as  there  should  be  unappro- 
priated funds  sufficient  to  defray  the  expenses  of  such 
a  mission  ;  and  the  very  next  year,  steps  were  taken 
to  ascertain,  according  to  the  grand  list,  the  quota 
that  each  parish  must  pay  in  order  to  secure  the  sum 
of  seven  hundred  dollars  —  that  sum  being  desig- 
nated as  necessary  to  support  the  agent.  The  mis- 
sion contemplated  never  was  undertaken,  but  these 
votes  indicate  the  zeal  and  earnestness  of  the  church- 
men of  Connecticut  seventy  years  ago,  in  the  matter 
of  Christian  and  classical  education. 

The  clergy  had  not  lost  sight  of  a  revision  of  the 
Articles,  and  in  this  respect  they  went  beyond  their 
first  Bishop,  who  was  inclined  to  doubt  the  necessity 
of  them  or  "  rather  to  believe  that  their  object  might 
be  accomplished  through  the  medium  of  the  Liturgy." 
At  a  Convocation  held  in  August,  1798,  Dr.  Smith  and 
the  Rev.  Messrs.  Shelton  and  Baldwin  were  appointed 
"a  Committee  to  frame  Articles  of  Religion,"  to  be 
laid  before  a  future  meeting ;  but  the  whole  sub- 
ject was  taken  out  of  their  hands  by  the  action  of 
the  General  Convention  in  1799,  —  action  which 
was  pressed  upon  that  body  at  the  instance  of  the 
delegates   from  Connecticut,  and  in   consequence  of 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  17 

instructions  which  they  had  received  from  the  Dio- 
cese. The  final  consideration  of  the  matter  was  re- 
ferred to  the  next  General  Convention  and  resulted  in 
the  adoption  of  the  doctrinal  system  of  the  Church  as 
embodied  in  our  present  Articles  of  Religion. 

Ebenezer  Dibblee,  whose  name  had  stood  on  the 
list  of  the  clergy  in  charge  of  the  parish  at  Stamford 
fifty-one  years,  went  to  his  rest  in  1799;  and  the 
people,  who  loved  him  so  well  and  whom  he  had 
served  so  faithfully,  were  unfortunate  in  the  choice 
of  a  successor,  and  became  involved  in  a  trouble 
which,  as  will  be  seen  hereafter,  not  only  produced 
division  and  contention  among  them,  but  alienated 
them  for  a  time  from  the  ecclesiastical  authority  of 
the  Diocese.  The  good  instructions  of  the  past  were 
forgotten  in  the  heats  of  passion,  and  the  breach, 
small  at  first,  was  widened  under  the  schemes  and 
dexterous  management  of  a  bad  leader. 

Hitherto  there  had  been  no  canons  for  the  regula- 
tion of  the  clergy  in  Connecticut,  but  a  special  com- 
mittee, previously  appointed,  reported  to  the  Conven- 
tion of  1799  a  code,  which,  after  due  consideration 
and  sundry  amendments,  was  adopted  and  "  ordered 
to  be  engrossed  on  the  minutes."  These  Canons  are 
remarkable  for  their  comprehensive  brevity,  and  they 
were  first  printed  without  any  headings  and  distin- 
guished merely  by  the  numbers.  Among  them  are 
directions  of  this  sort. 

"  The  clergy  shall  pay  strict  regard  to  the  Rubrics 
of  the  Church  and  shall  neither  alter  nor  mutilate 
the  service  otherwise  than  they  are  by  the  Rubrics 
permitted. 

"  The  clergy  shall  pay  due  attention  to  their  dress 


18  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

and  shall  deviate  as  little  as  possible  in  this  respect 
from  clerical  propriety. 

"  All  persons  belonging  to  this  State,  who  intend  to 
apply  to  the  Bishop  for  Holy  Orders,  shall  make 
known  to  him  their  intention  in  writing  twelve 
months  before  such  application. 

"Every  clergyman  settled  in  this  State  shall,  on 
the  next  Sunday  after  Easter  in  every  year,  preach  a 
sermon  to  his  congregation  on  the  duties  which  are 
peculiarly  Episcopal ;  and  in  which  he  shall  lay  before 
his  people  the  propriety  and  necessity  of  supporting 
the  Episcopal  office  with  becoming  dignity." 

Twenty  years  passed  away  before  any  attempt  was 
made  to  amend  or  revise  this  simple  code.  It  is  true 
at  a  Convocation  held  in  Derby  on  the  20th  of  No- 
vember, 1799  —  when  "the  new  church"  in  that 
place  was  consecrated,  —  the  Bishop  and  four  of  his 
presbyters  were  empowered  to  frame  "a  Canon  to 
regulate  clerical  attendance  upon  State  Conventions 
and  Convocations ;  and  also  to  address  certain  clergy- 
men in  the  Diocese  upon  the  subject  of  their  neglect 
of  those  clerical  meetings."  But  the  vote  resulted  in 
no  recorded  action  and  the  subsequent  legislation  of 
the  Church  was  directed  to  other  and  more  important 
matters. 

In  this  year  and  at  this  Convocation  an  Office  for 
inducting  clergymen  into  vacant  parishes  or  churches, 
prepared  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith  at  the  request  of  the 
Annual  Convention,  after  having  been  "examined, 
paragraph  by  paragraph,"  was  approved  and  ordered 
to  be  printed  without  delay,  and  the  Bishop  was  de- 
sired to  transmit  copies  of  it  to  the  several  bishops 
in  the  United  States  and  to  the  standing  committees 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  19 

of  those  States  in  which  there  were  no  bishops.  The 
object  of  giving  it  this  circulation  was  to  open  the 
way  for  its  adoption  and  use  by  the  Church  at  large, 
and  it  was  first  prescribed  by  the  General  Conven- 
tion of  1804 ;  and  a  section  of  the  Canon  then  passed 
in  reference  to  it  declared,  that  no  clergyman  hereaf- 
ter elected  into  any  parish  or  church  should  be  con- 
sidered as  a  regularly  admitted  and  settled  parochial 
minister  in  any  Diocese  or  State  until  he  had  been 
inducted  according  to  this  Office.  The  Diocese  of 
Connecticut,  at  its  Annual  Convention  three  months 
before,  had  formally  adopted  it  as  approved  by  the 
Bishop  and  Clergy  in  Convocation.  It  was  set  forth 
with  alterations  by  the  General  Convention  in  1808, 
—  the  title  changed  from  "  Induction  "  1  to  "  Institu- 
tion," and  its  use  made  to  depend  upon  recommenda- 
tion and  not  upon  requisition.  On  comparing  the 
present  Office  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  with 
the  first  printed  copy,  they  are  found  to  be  so  nearly 
alike  as  to  give  to  Connecticut  the  whole  credit  of 
providing  for  the  Church  a  service  which,  however 
much  it  may  be  neglected  in  these  days,  was  intended 
to  impress  upon  the  pastor  and  his  people  their  inti- 
mate, mutual,  and  solemn  relations  to  each  other. 

The  laity  now  began  to  receive  accessions  of  prom- 
inent men  from  the  standing  order,  and  their  dele- 
gates to  the  Annual  Conventions  regularly  outnum- 
bered the  clergy.  The  parishes,  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  century,  having  recovered,  in  a  measure, 
from  the  disastrous  effects  of  the  Revolutionary  "War, 

1  Induction  is  that  act  by  which  a  clergyman  is  vested  with  the  tempo- 
ralities of  a  living :  Institution  is  the  act  of  committing  to  his  charge  the 
care  of  souls. 


20  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

had  increased  to  sixty-three,  though  the  number  of 
clergymen  was  scarcely  greater  than  before  the  Inde- 
pendence of  the  Colonies.  Two  persons  applied  to  be 
received  as  candidates  for  Holy  Orders,  in  1801,  and 
were  rejected  by  the  Convocation ;  and  two  in  the  Dia- 
conate  —  Caleb  Childs  and  Ezra  Bradley  —  were  de- 
graded from  the  ministry.  The  final  vote  to  degrade 
the  latter  was  passed  by  the  Convocation  in  1804, 
when  twenty  clergymen,  including  the  Bishop,  were 
present.  Mr.  Childs,  besides  his  doctrinal  errors,  was 
charged  with  being  "guilty  of  immoralities  and  vices 
injurious  to  Christianity  and  disgraceful  to  the  charac- 
ter of  a  clergyman,"  and  the  sentence  of  degradation 
pronounced  upon  him  was  ordered  to  be  read  in  the 
churches  of  Stamford,  Norwalk,  and  New  Canaan. 

The  Annual  Convention  of  that  year  met  at  New- 
town, and  to  render  the  opening  services  more  impos- 
ing, a  procession  formed  by  its  members,  —  the  clergy 
in  their  gowns,  —  moved  from  the  house  of  the  Rec- 
tor, the  Rev.  Mr.  Burhans,  to  the  Episcopal  Church, 
attended  by  a  band  of  music.  The  example  of  that 
occasion  was  observed  for  many  years  afterwards,  with 
the  omission  of  the  musical  accompaniment.  Gama- 
liel Thatcher  was  at  the  time  advanced  to  the  priest- 
hood, and  a  lay  delegate  from  the  Episcopal  congre- 
gation in  Salisbury,  appeared  with  a  vote  of  that  par- 
ish "  adopting  the  Constitution  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  of  this  Diocese."  Four  of  the  clergy, 
Ashbel  Baldwin,  Philo  Shelton,  Tillotson  Bronson,  and 
Evan  Rogers,  and  two  of  the  laity,  James  Clark  of 
Danbury  and  Nathaniel  Perry  of  Woodbury,  were 
chosen  as  delegates  to  the  General  Convention  soon 
to  assemble  in   Trenton,  and  a   collection  to  defray 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  21 

their  expenses  was  ordered  to  be  made  in  the  several 
parishes  of  the  Diocese  in  the  ensuing  month,  and  the 
amounts  received  to  be  transmitted  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Baldwin.  Clark  attended  with  three  of  the  clerical 
delegates,  and  he  neutralized  their  affirmative  in  that 
body  on  a  proposition  to  enact  a  Canon  in  the  follow- 
ing words  :  "  No  lay  deputy  shall  be  admitted  as  a 
member  of  this  House  who  shall  not  have  been  a 
communicant  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  for 
at  least  one  year  previous  to  his  appointment."  More 
than  half  a  century  elapsed  before  the  substance  of 
what  the  Church  then  refused  to  adopt  was  finally 
agreed  to  and  ratified  by  the  General  Convention,  and 
made  an  essential  part  of  the  Constitution  originally 
accepted  for  the  government  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

The  Episcopalians  in  Hartford,  whose  misfortunes 
before  the  Revolution  had  led  them  to  suspend  the 
work  of  building  for  themselves  a  house  of  worship, 
resumed  it  again  in  1793.  but  without  a  resident  rec- 
tor the  enterprise  progressed  slowly  towards  comple- 
tion. On  the  10th  of  November,  1801,  the  Bishop 
and  fifteen  clergymen  assembled  in  Convocation  at 
Hartford,  and  the  next  clay  Christ  Church  was  conse- 
crated, and  the  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner,  who  had  been 
recently  called  from  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey,  was 
duly  inducted  into  the  Rectorship  of  the  parish.  It 
was  one  of  the  first  occasions,  if  not  the  very  first,  on 
which  the  new  Office  of  Institution  was  used  in  Con- 
necticut, and  joined  with  the  services  of  consecration, 
it  made  the  ceremonies  of  the  day  doubly  impressive, 
and  such  as  must  have  long  been  remembered.  Ash- 
bel  Baldwin,  then  in  the  vigor  of  manhood  and  the 


22  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

prime  of  his  usefulness,  preached  the  sermon.  A 
month  later  the  Rev.  Joseph  Warren  was  instituted 
into  the  Rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  Middletown. 
Mr.  Rayner  preached  the  sermon. 

One  eminent  presbyter,  who  had  borne  an  active 
and  influential  part  in  the  councils  of  the  Diocese 
from  its  organization,  was  now  about  to  withdraw  and 
enter  upon  another  field  of  labor.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Bowden,  who  for  nearly  six  years  had  been  at  the 
head  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  and  had  seen  it  grow 
into  a  chartered  Institution,1  with  considerable  funds 
and  "generally  about  sixty  students  in  a  course  of 
education,"  resigned  his  office  of  Principal  on  the 
29th  of  March,  1802,  and  accepted  the  more  comfor- 
table position  of  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  and 
Belles-Lettres  in  Columbia  College,  New  York.  A  spe- 
cial Convention  was  held  in  Cheshire  two  weeks  after- 
wards to  receive  his  resignation  and  elect  a  successor. 
The  choice  fell  unanimously  upon  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wil- 
liam Smith,  who  was  at  that  time  conducting  a  Gram- 
mar School  in  New  York,  having  relinquished  St. 
Paul's  Church,  Norwalk,  in  the  autumn  of  1800,  in 
consequence  of  an  unhappy  disagreement  which 
arose  between  him  and  the  people  in  regard  to  the 
permanency  of  a  settlement.  The  change  brought 
back  to  the  Diocese  an  energetic,  ardent,  and  impul- 
sive presbyter,  but  it  took  away  one  whom  the  clergy 
greatly  loved  and  revered,  who  was  a  wise  and  dispas- 
sionate counsellor,  and  whose  scholarly  pen  could 
always  be  trusted,  whether  employed  in  defending 
the  Church  or  in  speaking  for  his  brethren.  Dr.  Bow- 
den, besides  his  classic  and  patristic  knowledge,  was 

1  It  was  incorporated  at  the  May  session  of  the  General  Assembly,  1801. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  23 

well  read  in  English  theology  and  familiar  with  those 
publications  of  his  time  best  calculated  to  encourage 
correct  principles  and  sound  Christian  learning.  He 
was  the  first  to  introduce  into  this  country  Daubeny's 
"  Guide  to  the  Church,"  and  in  a  letter  to  the  author, 
written  at  the  instance  of  the  clergy  of  Connecticut 
in  the  summer  of  1801,  and  before  any  thought  of 
changing  his  location  had  been  entertained,  he  said, 
— "  we  are  determined  that  it  shall  be  a  standard 
book  for  all  our  candidates  for  holy  orders.  Clergy- 
men brought  up  at  the  feet  of  Leslie,  Home,  Jones, 
and  Daubeny,  will  not  fail  to  be  orthodox  in  their 
faith,  pure  in  their  lives,  and  zealous  to  promote  the 
kingdom  of  Christ." 

The  proper  support  of  the  Episcopate  had  been  a 
subject  of  consideration  by  the  Convention  and  by  the 
laity  in  the  principal  parishes  from  an  early  date  in  the 
administration  of  Bishop  Seabury.  The  memorial  to 
the  Legislature  for  a  charter  heretofore  several  times 
mentioned,  was  granted  in  1799;  but  so  scattered 
were  the  corporators  or  so  indifferent  to  their  trust, 
that  no  meeting  to  organize  was  held  —  though  do- 
nations were  awaiting  their  action  —  until  the  last 
day  of  November,  1803.  In  the  meantime,  the  Con- 
vention by  special  resolves  had  endeavored  to  "stir 
up  their  pure  minds  by  way  of  remembrance,"  and 
three  of  the  memorialists  had  applied  to  the  General 
Assembly  at  the  October  session  of  that  year  for  an 
addition  to  their  number  of  two  clergymen  and  two 
laymen,  centrally  located.  The  application  was 
granted,  and  after  an  organization  should  be  com- 
pleted, five  of  the  Board  with  the  "president  or 
chairman,"  were  empowered  to  form  a  quorum.     The 


24  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Treasurer,  Isaac  Beers,  one  of  the  new  Trustees,  was 
a  resident  of  New  Haven,  and  pains  were  taken  to 
secure  subscriptions  to  increase  the  fund,  both  from 
individ  uals  and  from  the  several  parishes  in  the  Dio- 
cese. By  a  vote  of  the  Board,  all  persons  who  should 
subscribe  and  pay  to  the  treasurer  of  the  corpora- 
tion the  sum  of  thirty  dollars  each  were  entitled  to 
have  their  names  inserted  on  the  records,  but  this  in- 
ducement appears  not  to  have  been  a  very  powerful 
one,  for  only  eight  names  are  thus  entered,  two  of 
them  heading  the  list  from  Stratford,  —  the  Johnsons, 
father  and  son,  —  the  rest  were  from  Hartford,  and 
the  aggregate  of  their  subscriptions  was  three  hun- 
dred and  ninety  dollars.  "  A  donation  from  a  bishop 
in  Scotland,"  of  sixty  pounds  sterling,  appears  among 
the  earliest  credits. 

The  Annual  Convention  of  1804,  held  at  Litchfield, 
provided  for  an  "  address  "  on  the  subject  "  To  the 
members  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut," 
and  the  Trustees,  meeting  in  October,  requested  the 
clergy  to  read  it  to  their  respective  congregations  at 
some  convenient  time  previous  to  Easter  Monday, 
when  the  parishes  or  individual  members  thereof 
were  desired  to  consult  together  and  make  liberal  do- 
nations. An  extract  from  this  address  will  show 
the  earnestness  of  the  Committee  by  whom  it  was 
prepared. 

"Brethren,  believing  that  entreaties  will  not  be 
necessary  to  persuade  you  to  make  provision  for  the 
supreme  officer  in  our  ecclesiastical  polity,  we  con- 
gratulate you  on  the  opportunity  now  presented,  of 
showing  your  zeal  for  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  of 
giving  to  the  honor  of  his  name,  '  according  to  the 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  25 

blessings  wherewith  he  hath  blessed  you.'  We  are 
also  putting  you  in  mind  to  pay  a  debt,  —  a  debt  of 
gratitude  to  our  common  benefactor,  for  his  merciful 
providence  in  granting  to  us  a  valid  and  regular 
succession  in  the  ministry,  with  all  the  blessings 
and  benefits  which  are  connected  therewith  :  and  for 
such  inestimable  favors  how  disproportionate  are  all 
the  returns  that  can  be  made  !  God  hath  been  liberal 
to  you  in  spirituals  and  in  temporals,  his  goodness 
and  his  mercy  accompany  you  —  your  land  yields  her 
increase  and  your  barns  are  filled  with  plenty  —  but 
no  provision  is  made  for  the  fountain  of  Holy  Or- 
ders, no  maintenance  made  for  Christ's  chief  minister 
among  you!  Will  any  of  you  then  grudge  to  make 
God  some  small  return  ?  Will  any  of  you  be  back- 
ward to  honor  with  a  part  of  your  substance  that 
office  which  is  the  grand  vinculum  that  binds  and 
unites  Christians  throughout  the  world  ?  No  !  breth- 
ren :  rather  consider  the  office  of  a  bishop,  as  the 
representative  of  Christ,  and  receive  those  who  bear 
it,  as  you  would  the  Apostles.  Remember  those 
words  of  Christ  to  his  Apostles,  and  in  them  every 
succeeding  Bishop  of  his  Church  — '  he  that  receiv- 
eth  you,  receiveth  me,  and  he  that  receiveth  me,  re- 
ceiveth  him  that  sent  me.' 

"  Disposed  to  honor  the  person  sent,  on  account  of 
the  religious  reverence  due  to  the  Sender,  ye  need 
not,  brethren,  the  force  of  multiplied  arguments  to 
persuade  you  to  do  in  the  present  case  what  is  highly 
for  your  honor,  your  temporal  and  spiritual  emolu- 
ment. By  being  liberal  in  your  donations  for  this 
confessedly  praiseworthy  purpose,  ye  will  honor  the 
memory  of  your  departed  friends,  who  have  l  desired 


'"j4L 


26  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

to  see  the  things  which  ye  see,'  namely,  ordinations 
and  confirmations,  '  and  have  not  seen  them  ;  and  to 
hear  the  things  which  ye  hear,'  the  voices  of  the  An- 
gels of  the  Churches,  '  and  have  not  heard  them.'  A 
blessing  will  descend  upon  you  and  your  posterity ; 
and  whenever  mention  shall  be  made  of  the  Church 
in  Connecticut,  the  Bishop's  Fund  will  be  mentioned 
for  a  perpetual  memorial  of  your  zeal  for  the  cause 
of  God  and  his  Church." 

Notwithstanding  this  earnest  appeal,  the  enlarge- 
ment of  the  fund  for  several  years  was  inconsiderable, 
and  the  support  of  Bishop  Jarvis  was  regarded  with 
a  languor  which  neither  his  own  private  means  nor 
any  poverty  of  the  parishes  could  justify. 

The  plans  in  reference  to  the  Academy  at  Cheshire 
had  not  been  accomplished,  and  steps  were  taken  to 
increase  its  endowment  in  a  way  which  was  then  sup- 
posed to  be  perfectly  consistent  with  the  dictates  of 
Christian  moralit}^.  A  petition  to  the  General  As- 
sembly for  a  lottery  to  raise  the  sum  of  fifteen  thou- 
sand dollars  was  granted  at  the  October  session  of 
1802,  but  the  net  proceeds  of  the  grant,  owing  to  loss 
and  perplexity  and  expense  attending  the  manage- 
ment, were  considerably  less  than  the  amount  desired. 
The  financial  affairs  of  the  institution  being  thus  im- 
proved, its  friends  began  to  turn  their  attention  to  the 
original  design  of  erecting  it  into  a  college,  and, 
therefore,  in  accordance  with  a  vote  of  the  Annual 
Convention,  the  Board  of  Trustees  in  1804  applied 
to  the  Legislature  for  a  charter,  empowering  them  to 
confer  degrees  in  the  arts,  divinity,  and  law,  and  to 
enjoy  all  other  privileges  usually  granted  to  colleges. 
This   application   failed,    and  no   renewal   of  it  was 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  27 

made  until  the  occurrence  of  more  propitious  events. 
The  resignation  of  Dr.  Bowden  and  his  removal  to 
New  York  led  to  another  change  in  the  residence  of 
Bishop  Jarvis.  He  was  himself  a  graduate  of  Yale 
College,  and  his  son  being  now  well  prepared,  he  de- 
termined, in  1803,  to  remove  to  New  Haven  and  enter 
him  as  a  student  at  the  same  institution.  His  wife 
had  died  two  years  before,  and  this  event  made  him 
more  unwilling  than  ever  to  be  separated  from  the 
child  for  whose  success  and  welfare  he  was  deeply  so- 
licitous. Besides,  New  Haven  was  the  largest  city  in 
Connecticut,  and  the  best  located,  as  things  then 
were,  for  a  convenient  administration  of  the  Diocese. 

Under  the  editorship  of  (l  a  Committee  appointed 
by  the  Convocation  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Con- 
necticut," a  periodical  was  commenced  with  the  year 
1804,  called  "  The  Churchman's  Monthly  Magazine  or 
Treasury  of  Divine  and  Useful  Knowledge."  The  ob- 
ject of  it  was  to  diffuse  information  concerning  the 
Church  —  to  furnish  brief  historical  accounts,  com- 
ments, and  explanations  of  her  feasts  and  fasts,  her  Sac- 
raments, Liturgy,  and  Offices,  to  give  a  right  under- 
standing of  the  economy  of  redemption  and  the  insti- 
tuted means  of  salvation,  and  also  to  procure,  publish, 
and  preserve  records  of  "  the  origin  and  progress  of 
the  individual  congregations  in  the  Diocese."  The  ed- 
itors, in  their  introductory  address,  said  :  — 

"  That  the  object  may  be  the  more  completely  em- 
braced, the  whole  will  be  calculated  to  guard  against 
the  plausible  but  dangerous  reasonings  of  infidels  and 
latitudinarians  —  reasonings  the  more  dangerous,  be- 
cause plausible,  for  the  laying  all  religions  upon  a 
level;  and  whose  pretended  liberality  towards  relig- 


28  HISOTRY  OP  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

ion  in  every  form,  arises  from  a  real  coldness  towards 
it  in  any,  and  from  their  wishes  to  bring  the  thing 
itself  into  contempt  and  insignificance. 

"  We  have  a  very  encouraging  and  noble  example 
set  us,  in  that  country  from  whence  we  emanated, 
and  by  numbers  of  that  Church  which  gave  origin 
to  ours,  and  under  whose  fostering  care  it  was  for 
many  years  nurtured.  The  writings  of  those  learned 
and  virtuous  men  brought  over  to  us,  exhibit  the 
most  pleasing  proofs  of  their  vigilance  and  ever  to  be 
admired  abilities  in  detecting  the  falsehoods  and  re- 
pelling the  subtle  efforts  of  the  enemies  of  their  re- 
ligion and  peace." 

It  was  the  first  and  for  some  time  the  only  period- 
ical publication  in  this  country  devoted  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  though 
it  had  a  precarious  and  troubled  existence,  appear- 
ing for  a  few  years  in  Connecticut  and  then  being 
removed  to  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  and  finally 
brought  back  and  restored  to  life  in  the  land  of  its 
birth,  yet  it  must  be  confessed  that  it  fulfilled  a 
good  purpose  in  its  day,  and  was  conducted  with  a 
spirit  and  ability  which  served  to  promote  both  the 
glory  of  God  and  the  edification  of  his  people.  Not 
feeling  and  therefore  not  expressing  any  of  that  spu- 
rious liberality  which  would  level  all  distinction  be- 
tween right  and  wrong,  it  aimed  to  make  truth  and 
sincerity  its  guide,  and  helped  to  impress  those  whole- 
some lessons  which  have  marked  the  character,  and 
lived  so  long  in  the  recollections  of  Connecticut 
churchmen. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  29 


CHAPTER  III. 

ECCLESIASTICAL  TROUBLE;  PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  CASE  OF  AMMI 
ROGERS;  AND  INTERPOSITION  OF  THE  HOUSE  OF  BISHOPS  IN- 
VOKED. 

A.    D.    1804-1805. 

The  peace  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  was  dis- 
turbed by  a  new  and  mischievous  trouble  which  arose 
about  this  time,  and  extended  on  beyond  the  admin- 
istration of  Bishop  Jarvis.  It  is  necessary  to  the 
truth  of  history  that  the  story  be  fully  told  —  other- 
wise these  pages  would  not  be  occupied  with  what 
may  seem,  in  the  view  of  many  readers,  to  be  un- 
profitable matter. 

A  young  man  named  Ammi  Rogers,  born  at  Bran- 
ford  and  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  in  the  class 
of  1790,  having  met  with  opposition  in  his  native 
State  where  his  character  was  best  known,  applied  for 
Holy  Orders  in  the  Diocese  of  New  York,  and  on  the 
strength  of  a  certificate  signed  with  the  name  of  the 
Rev.  Philo  Perry,  Secretary  of  the  Convocation  of 
the  Clergy  of  Connecticut,  —  which  certificate  was 
neither  written  nor  signed  by  him,1  —  he  was  ordained 

1  While  the  case  was  under  consideration,  a  clerical  member  of  the 
standing  committee,  Dr.  Beach,  having  heard  of  his  rejection  in  Connec- 
ticut, opposed  his  ordination.  "  On  this,  Rogers  repaired  to  that  State,  with 
the  view  of  procuring  from  the  Rev.  Philo  Perry,  the  Secretary  of  the  Con- 
vention of  the  Diocese,  a  certificate  that  there  did  not  appear  on  the  min- 
utes any  entry  of  the  rejection  of  the  person  in  question.    Such  a  certificate 


30  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

a  Deacon  by  Bishop  Provoost  in  June,  1792,  and  at  a 
later  date  the  same  prelate  advanced  him  to  the  order 
of  the  Priesthood.  Of  pleasing  appearance  and  in- 
sinuating address,  he  made  strong  friends  for  himself; 
and  reported  as  the  result  of  his  ministrations  in  Sara- 
toga County,  in  Schenectady  and  other  places,  where 
he  first  officiated,  great  interest  in  religious  things 
and  large  accessions  to  the  Church.  He  continued  in 
Northern  New  York  some  nine  years  and  employed 
the  influence  which  his  zealous  and  apparently  suc- 
cessful labors  had  gained  him  to  promote  his  selfish 
and  ambitious  ends.  He  was  a  delegate  from  New 
York  to  the  General  Convention  which  met  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1799  —  having  secured  his  election  to  that 
body  over  a  venerable  city  clergyman  by  adroitly 
impressing  his  brethren  with  a  conviction  of  his  abil- 
ity, earnestness,  and  piety.  In  midsummer,  1801,  he 
returned  to  Branford,  and  assumed  the  charge  of  the 
parishes  in  that  town,  Wallingford  and  East  Haven. 
The  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  knowing  his  early  char- 
acter and  the  ingenious  fraud  which  he  had  practiced 
to  obtain  orders,  refused  to  receive  him,  and  the  clergy 
refused  to  admit  him  a  member  of  the  Convocation, 
until  he  produced  satisfactory  testimonials  from  the 
Bishop  and  Standing  Committee  of  the  Diocese  in 
which  he  was  ordained    and    to  which   he    properly 

might  have  been  given  with  great  truth,  because  no  formal  application  had 
been  made.  But  Philo  Perry  being  from  home,  Ainmi  Rogers  fabricated  a 
certificate  in  his  name;  not  only  testifying  to  the  said  fact,  but  going  to  the 
point  of  the  correct  life  and  conversation  of  the  bearer.  The  last  circum- 
stance is  of  importance;  because,  although  a  certificate  as  to  his  not  having 
applied  for  and  been  refused  orders,  was  obtained  from  Philo  Perry  after- 
ward, yet  it  went  no  further." — Bishop  White's  Memoirs  of  Prot.  Epis. 
Ch.  p.  188. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  31 

belonged.  Had  there  been  an  explicit  canon  in  re- 
gard to  letters  dimissory,  such  as  the  Church  possesses 
now,  there  would  have  been  no  room  for  diversity  of 
sentiment  upon  this  subject;  but  the  law  was  then 
to  be  inferred  from  general  principles,  and  the  friends 
of  Rogers  among  the  clergy,  at  least  in  the  earliest 
stage  of  the  proceedings,  appear  to  have  felt  that  he 
had  some  show  of  right  on  his  side  and  ought  to  be 
received  and  recognized  by  virtue  of  his  parochial 
cure.  A  month  before  the  meeting  of  the  Annual 
Convention  of  1803,  six  Rectors  in  Connecticut  — 
Dr.  Mansfield,  Solomon  Blakeslee,  John  Tyler,  Am- 
brose Todd,  Joseph  Warren,  and  Smith  Miles  —  ad- 
dressed a  brief  memorial  to  Bishop  Jarvis  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  :  "  That  each  parish  has  a  right  to  choose 
its  own  Rector,  and  that  when  the  Bishop's  approba- 
tion is  obtained  he  does,  of  course,  become  a  member 
of  the  Convention,  and  that  it  appears  from  sufficient 
documents  that  the  parishes  under  the  charge  of  the 
Rev.  A.  Rogers  have  proceeded  according  to  their 
right  and  the  Canons  of  the  Church  in  choosing  him 
for  their  Rector,  and  the  Bishop's  actual  approbation 
being  obtained  in  one  case,  and  no  objections  stated  in 
the  other,  we  therefore  pray  that  he  may  take  his  seat 
in  the  Convention  and  become  one  of  our  number." 

But  the  memorial  thus  supported  was  of  no  avail, 
nor  were  the  letters  which  Mr.  Rogers  procured  from 
New  York  satisfactory  to  the  ecclesiastical  authority 
of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut.  He  still  insisted  that 
he  was  entitled  to  a  seat  in  the  Convention,  and  Ins 
claims  were  urged  with  considerable  pertinacity  by 
one  or  two  lay-members,  whom  he  had  succeeded  in 
convincing  that  he  was  more    the  victim   of  private 


32  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

persecution  than  an  object  of  just  censure.  He  was 
a  most  ubiquitous  character  and  appeared  in  all  parts 
of  the  Diocese,  officiating  wherever  he  could  gain  ad- 
mittance, calumniating  the  Bishop,  seeking  to  divide 
the  clergy,  to  poison  the  minds  of  the  laity,  and  thus 
to  create  an  unhappy  schism  in  the  Church.  In  com- 
pliance with  the  requirements  of  Canon  second 
of  the  General  Convention  of  1792,  official  notice 
was  given  of  these  irregularities  to  the  Bishop  of 
New  York,  to  whom  the  offender  was  amenable,  but 
the  notice  was  entirely  disregarded  and  the  irregular- 
ities were  repeated  in  an  aggravated  form.  Failing 
to  reach  him  in  any  other  way,  the  clergy,  at  a  Con- 
vocation held  in  Litchfield  on  the  6th  day  of  June, 
1804,  "  resolved  unanimously  that  the  Bishop  be  re- 
quested to  suspend  the  Rev.  Ammi  Rogers  from  the 
use  of  the  churches  in  this  Diocese."  Accordingly  a 
circular  was  issued  five  days  afterwards  of  which  the 
following  is  a  copy  :  — 

"  The  Rev.  Ammi  Rogers,  now  residing  in  this  Dio- 
cese, hath  for  a  long  time  conducted  himself  in  such 
a  way  as  is  contrary  to  the  rules  of  the  Church  and 
disgraceful  to  his  office,  —  therefore,  by  the  advice, 
and  at  the  desire  of  the  Clergy  of  Connecticut,  We, 
the  Bishop,  do  by  these  presents  forbid,  and  direct 
the  Clergy  of  this  Diocese  to  forbid  the  said  Rogers  in 
future  to  officiate  in  their  churches  and  within  their 
parishes,  and  in  all  vacant  parishes  the  wardens  are 
desired  to  do  the  same,  and  the  congregations  are 
exhorted  not  to  give  countenance  to  a  man  whose 
disorderly  and  refractory  conduct  is  subversive  of 
the  harmony  and  peace  of  the  Church." 

Rogers   published  an  immediate  response  to  this 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  33 

circular,  and  declared  it  to  be  without  authority  and 
of  no  force.  His  numerous  adherents,  in  the  parishes 
where  he  had  been  employed,  also  issued  their  solemn 
protest  —  instigated  and  prepared  no  doubt  by  him- 
self— against  the  circular  of  the  Bishop,  but  the 
clergy  stood  firmly  by  their  chief  pastor  and  sus- 
tained him  in  the  act  which  had  been  performed  in 
obedience  to  their  request.  They  addressed  a  letter 
to  the  Standing  Committee  of  New  York,  reciting 
generally  the  course  of  Rogers  in  Connecticut  and  en- 
closing a  copy  of  his  "Anti-circular"  with  a  request 
that  it  might  be  laid  before  their  Diocesan,  adding, 
u  we  wish  not  in  this  communication  to  go  into  a  par- 
ticular detail  of  the  many  irregularities  which  he  has 
been  guilty  of  since  he  has  been  in  this  State.  We 
judge  his  circular  letter  will  be  sufficient  data  for 
some  official  measures  to  be  taken  respecting  him." 
By  this  time  he  had  removed  from  his  native  place 
and  become  the  accepted  minister  in  the  more  an- 
cient and  wealthy  parish  at  Stamford.  Here  he  was 
quite  popular,  and  the  influence  which  he  acquired 
over  his  supporters  emboldened  him  to  take  other 
steps  to  vindicate  his  character  and  standing  in  the 
Church. 

The  General  Convention  met  in  the  city  of  New 
York,  September  1804,  and  confident  of  success,  he 
carried  his  case  before  the  House  of  Bishops,  and  in- 
voked their  interposition.  That  House  was  then 
composed  of  White,  Claggett,  Jarvis,  Benjamin  Moore, 
and  Parker  —  the  latter  of  whom  was  consecrated  to 
the  Apostolic  office  on  the  fourth  day  of  the  session, 
and  the  "  memorial  of  the  Rev.  Ammi  Rogers,  accom- 
panied with  sundry  documents  and  a  letter"  was  in- 

VOL.  II.  3 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

troduced  on  the  same  day.  A  time  was  fixed  for 
hearing  the  case,  and  the  desire  of  the  Bishops  was 
communicated  to  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Depu- 
ties, that,  if  any  members  of  that  body  "possessed 
information  respecting  the  conduct  of  the  said  Ammi 
Rogers  in  the  matters  brought  before  them,"  they 
would  appear  at  the  specified  time  and  produce  the 
information.  Bishop  Jarvis,  from  motives  of  delicacy, 
absented  himself  when  the  question  came  up,  but 
the  clerical  delegates  from  Connecticut  appeared  and 
the  memorialist  was  called  in,  and  documents  on  both 
sides  were  then  read  and  a  hearing  was  granted. 
Nothing  was  done  afterwards  in  the  business  except 
in  the  presence  of  the  parties  concerned.  "  The  cler- 
ical deputies  from  Connecticut,"  says  Bishop  White, 
"  while  they  treated  the  man  with  the  utmost  deco- 
rum, produced  ample  evidence  of  a  factious  and  mis- 
chievous disposition." 

The  final  determination  of  the  House  of  Bishops 
concerning  the  whole  subject  is  entered  upon  their 
journal  and  quoted  here  without  omitting  a  word. 

"  After  full  inquiry  and  fair  examination  of  all  the 
evidence  that  could  be  procured,  it  appears  to  this 
house  that  the  said  Ammi  Rogers  had  produced  to  the 
Standing  Committee  of  New  York  (upon  the  strength 
of  which  he  obtained  Holy  Orders)  a  certificate 
signed  with  the  name  of  the  Rev.  Philo  Perry,  which 
certificate  was  not  written  nor  signed  by  him. 

"  That  the  conduct  of  the  said  Ammi  Rogers,  in  the 
State  of  Connecticut,  during  his  residence  in  that 
State  since  he  left  New  York,  has  been  insulting,  re- 
fractory, and  schismatical  in  the  highest  degree ;  and, 
were  it  tolerated,  would  prove  subversive  of  all  order 


IK   CONNECTICUT.  35 

and  discipline  in  the  Church ;  and  that  the  statement 
which  he  made  in  justification  of  his  conduct,  was  a 
mere  tissue  of  equivocation  and  evasion,  and,  of 
course,  served  rather  to  defeat  than  to  establish  his 
purpose. 

"  Therefore  this  house  do  approve  of  the  proceedings 
of  the  Church  in  Connecticut,  in  reproving  the  said 
Ammi  Rogers,  and  prohibiting  him  from  the  perform- 
ance .  of  any  ministerial  duties  within  that  Diocese ; 
and,  moreover,  are  of  opinion  that  he  deserves  a 
severe  ecclesiastical  censure  —  that  of  degradation 
from  the  ministry. 

"In  regard  to  the  question,  To  what  authority  is 
Mr.  Rogers  amenable  ?  this  house  are  sensible,  that 
there  not  having  been,  previously  to  the  present  Con- 
vention, any  sufficient  provision  for  a  case  of  a  cler- 
gyman removing  from  one  diocese  to  another,  it 
might  easily  happen  that  different  sentiments  would 
arise  as  to  this  point.  We  are  of  opinion,  that  Mr. 
Rogers's  residence  being  in  Connecticut,  it  is  to  the 
authority  of  that  diocese  he  is  exclusively  amenable. 
But  as  the  imposition  practiced  with  a  view  to  the 
Ministry  was  in  New  York,  we  recommend  to  the 
Bishop  and  Standing  Committee  of  that  State,  to  send 
to  the  Bishop  in  Connecticut  such  documents,  duly 
attested,  of  the  measure  referred  to,  as  will  be  a 
ground  of  procedure  in  that  particular. 

"  We  further  direct  the  Secretary  to  deliver  a  copy 
of  the  above  to  the  clerical  deputies  from  Connecti- 
cut, and  another  copy  to  the  Rev.  Ammi  Rogers. 
And  we  further  direct  that  either  of  the  aforesaid 
parties  be  permitted  to  have  any  document  respect- 
ively delivered  in  by  them,  a  copy  of  it  being  first 


36  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

taken ;  except  the  petition  and  affidavit  of  the  Rev. 
Ammi  Rogers,  of  which  he  may  have  a  copy  if  de- 
sired —  as  may  either  of  the  parties  have  of  any 
document  delivered  by  the  other  party." 

This  decision,  embracing  the  opinion  of  the  bish- 
ops on  all  the  points  contained  in  the  memorial,  was 
not  entirely  free  from  canonical  difficulties.  It  sent 
the  petitioner  back  to  Connecticut  under  a  sentence 
of  condemnation  by  the  very  body  from  which  he 
had  sought  redress ;  and  hence  the  impression  was 
produced  that  Ammi  Rogers  had  been  tried  by  the 
House  of  Bishops  and  that  nothing  remained  but  to 
declare  him  degraded.  The  whole  proceeding  was 
somewhat  loose  and  irregular.  Bishop  White  thought 
that  in  giving  an  opinion,  the  House  should  have 
stopped  with  an  incidental  notice  of  "the  iniquity 
which  had  come  within  their  knowledge,"  during  the 
investigation.  "  But  unfortunately,"  he  continued, 
"one  of  the  bishops  having  proposed  that  there 
should  be  included  a  recommendation  to  degrade  the 
man  from  the  Ministry,  the  others,  under  the  sensi- 
bility excited  by  the  evidence  of  his  great  unworthi- 
ness  and  his  flagitious  conduct,  consented  to  the  pro- 
posal. This  was  ill-judged."  It  seemed  to  close  the 
case  to  further  scrutiny,  and  furnished  the  Bishop  and 
clergy  of  Connecticut  with  a  reason  for  their  subse- 
quent action. 

The  mode  of  trying  a  clergyman  in  this  Diocese 
at  that  time  was  prescribed  by  a  Canon,  which  re- 
quired the  accusers  of  an  offending  minister  to  make 
written  application  in  the  first  instance  to  the  Stand- 
ing Committee,  and  if  it  appeared  to  them  that  there 
was  ground  for  the  charges,  they  should  report  there- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  37 

upon  to  the  bishop,  who  was  then  to  call  a  conven- 
tion of  his  clergy  —  not  less  than  seven  —  and  after  a 
full  and  fair  trial  and  examination  he,  with  the  advice 
of  those  present,  should  pronounce  sentence  against 
the  guilty  party.  Rogers  complained  that  in  his  case 
the  provisions  of  the  Canon  were  not  regarded  ;  and, 
technically  speaking,  there  was  room  for  complaint, 
unless  the  hearing,  which  he  had  himself  invited,  is  to 
be  understood  in  the  light  of  a  trial  before  a  higher 
court.  It  was  so  understood  by  Bishop  Claggett, 
whose  ill-health  compelled  him  to  leave  the  city  and 
return  home  before  the  business  was  finished  or 
rather  before  any  judgment  had  been  delivered. 
Others  could  not  refrain  from  taking  the  same  view : 
especially  as  witnesses  were  called,  testimony  heard, 
and  an  authoritative  decision  rendered. 

"  The  ground  on  which  the  Bishops  consented  to 
give  their  sentiments  on  the  question,  as  to  the  juris- 
diction to  which  Ammi  Rogers  belonged,  was,"  says 
White  "  in  the  urgent  solicitations  of  both  the  par- 
ties; which  were  thought  to  justify  the  expression  of 
opinion."  His  amenability  to  the  Diocese  of  Connec- 
ticut having  been  affirmed,  a  Convocation  was  held 
in  Cheshire  on  the  3d  day  of  October,  —  two  weeks 
after  the  adjournment  of  the  General  Convention, — 
when  the  Bishop  and  ten  presbyters  were  present. 
No  allusion  to  the  episcopal  decision  appears  upon 
the  records  of  that  meeting,  but  simply  this  entry : 
"Bishop  Jarvis  presented  a  sentence  of  degradation 
against  the  Rev.  Ammi  Rogers,  which  was  unani- 
mously approved  and  the  same  ordered  to  be  pub- 
lished in  the  usual  form,"  an  order  which  was,  of  course, 
immediately    obeyed.     A   terrible    storm    now    arose 


38  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

and  threatened  to  be  followed  by  serious  conse- 
quences to  the  Church  in  Connecticut.  The  friends 
of  the  degraded  minister  rallied  around  him  with  in- 
creased earnestness  and  the  congregation  of  St.  John's 
Church  in  Stamford,  for  which  he  had  been  hired  on 
the  previous  Easter  Monday  to  officiate  six  months, 
held  a  meeting,  and  by  a  major  vote  called  and 
settled  him  as  their  Rector,  and  stipulated  to  pay 
him  annually  a  definite  sum  during  his  natural  life, 
"  any  order,  determination,  or  decree  of  the  Bishop 
and  clergy  of  this  or  any  other  State  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding."  The  minority,  who  endeavored  in 
vain  to  get  the  Bishop's  circular  and  documents  from 
the  General  Convention  read,  remonstrated  against 
this  proceeding,  and  claimed  that  those  who  instituted 
it  had  forfeited  their  right  to  be  the  representatives  of 
the  parish  and  the  guardians  of  its  interests.  Internal 
troubles  followed,  and  suits  at  law  were  commenced 
against  Rogers  to  eject  him  from  the  incumbency  on 
the  ground  that  he  was  a  trespasser,  and  in  the  trial 
of  these  suits  came  up  the  question  of  his  displace- 
ment from  the  ministry  in  due  and  canonical  form. 
The  courts  decided  virtually  in  his  favor,  and  held 
that  the  papers  issued  and  published  by  Bishop  Jar- 
vis  concerning  him  were  not,  in  themselves,  sufficient 
to  deprive  him  of  his  standing  in  the  Church,  and 
consequently  of  his  living  amongst  those  who  had  ac- 
cepted him  as  their  lawful  and  settled  minister.  The 
points  of  law  turned  upon  the  nature  of  the  Epis- 
copal office,  and  the  interpretation  of  the  Canons 
which  prescribed  the  mode  of  trying  a  clergyman  in 
Connecticut.  Disorderly  and  schismatical  conduct, 
unbecoming  a  priest  of  God,  and  subversive    of  the 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  39 

peace  and  harmony  of  the  Church,  was  not  the  issue 
before  the  civil  court,  but  it  was  whether  the  man,  with 
this  particular  sentence  of  degradation  pronounced 
upon  him,  had  the  same  clerical  rights  as  before. 

The  Bishop  with  his  clergy  met  in  Convocation  at 
Stamford  on  the  14th  day  of  October,  1805,  when  be- 
sides himself  thirteen  were  present,  including  two 
visiting  brethren  from  New  York.  The  object  of  the 
meeting  was  to  confer,  in  a  friendly  and  unofficial 
way,  with  the  principal  adherents  of  Rogers ;  and  as 
soon  as  they  had  organized  for  business  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  wait  upon  Mr.  Cary  Leeds,  one  of 
their  number  and  their  authorized  "agent  to  nego- 
tiate a  settlement  of  all  the  unhappy  differences  and 
disputes,"  and  inform  him  that  the  Convocation  was 
now  ready  to  enter  into  a  conference  with  him  re- 
specting those  ecclesiastical  proceedings  of  the  Dio- 
cese which  were  so  unsatisfactory  to  him  and  his 
friends.  The  answer  brought  back  by  the  committee 
was — "That  Mr.  Leeds  informed  them  that  he  could 
have  no  personal  conference  with  the  Convocation." 
The  Bishop  had  previously  made  a  gentle  requisi- 
tion upon  him  for  the  keys  of  St.  John's  Church,  that 
it  might  be  used  for  the  meetings  of  the  clergy  while 
in  town ;  and  had  told  him  that  "  his  compliance  in 
this  particular  would  be  in  strict  conformity  to  eccle- 
siastical duty."  But  the  keys  had  been  given  up  to 
the  exclusive  control  of  Rogers,  and  to  him  therefore 
a  more  peremptory  requisition  was  sent,  but  without 
avail.  Several  letters  or  notes  passed  between  the 
parties,  and  finally  the  "  Rev.  Philo  Shelton,  Rev. 
Daniel  Burhans  and  Rev.  Tillotson  Bronson  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  draft  an  answer  to  the  last 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

communication  from  Cary  Leeds  to  this  Convoca- 
tion ; "  and  they  submitted  the  following  statement, 
which  was  approved  unanimously  and  ordered  to  be 
engrossed  upon  the  minutes. 

u  To  Cary  Leeds,  Alexander  Bishop  and  others  who 
are  dissatisfied  with  the  ecclesiastical  proceedings  of 
the  Bishop  and  clergy  of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut 
in  regard  to  Mr.  Ammi  Rogers  :  — 

"  The  Bishop  and  clergy  of  the  Diocese  of  Connect- 
icut, sincerely  desirous  to  promote  the  peace  and  pre- 
serve the  authority  of  the  Church,  have  met  at 
Stamford  in  the  hope  that,  by  friendly  conference  with 
you,  it  would  be  in  their  power  to  satisfy  you  of  the 
propriety  and  duty  of  submitting  to  the  sentence 
pronounced  upon  Mr.  Ammi  Rogers.  They  regret 
that  your  refusal  to  engage  in  a  personal  conference 
has  prevented  that  full  and  fair  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject which  in  every  point  of  view  was  so  desirable. 
By  persons  who  profess  themselves  churchmen  in 
principles  and  in  practice,  they  still  cherish  the  hope 
that  the  following  statement  of  facts  from  the  author- 
ity of  the  Church  will  be  duly  regarded." 

They  then  proceed  to  give  a  minute  history  of  the 
hearing  before  the  House  of  Bishops  and  to  call  atten- 
tion to  every  step  taken  in  that  body  with  reference 
to  this  matter.     Their  answer  next  goes  on  to  say :  — 

"  By  recurring  to  the  Journal,  you  will  find  that  the 
above  is  an  impartial  statement  of  facts,  and  that  the 
following  particulars  undeniably  result  from  it.  Mr. 
Ammi  Rogers  brought  this  business  himself  before 
the  House  of  Bishops,  and,  in  the  words  of  his  memo- 
rial, declared  that  'he  has  never  shunned  investiga- 
tion, but  on  the  contrary  has  always  requested  it,  and 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  41 

now  prays  that  a  candid  and  impartial  inquiry  may  be 
made  as  to  his  conduct  and  character.'  It  appears 
that  Mr.  Rogers  presented  to  the  House  his  docu- 
ments ;  and  that  a  full  hearing  of  the  case  was  at 
different  times  made  in  the  presence  of  both  parties ; 
that  Mr.  Rogers  confirmed  the  wish  that  he  expressed 
for  an  inquiry  by  always  attending  for  the  purpose, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  close  of  the  inquiry,  and 
until  he  had  reason  to  fear  the  unfavorable  result  to 
himself  that  he  expressed  to  the  Bishops  that  he  did 
not  wish  them  to  come  to  any  decision.  Now  as  per- 
sons deeply  interested  for  the  peace  of  the  Church 
and  your  spiritual  welfare,  we  entreat  your  conscien- 
tious attention  to  the  following  considerations.  Can 
you  suppose,  that,  if  Mr.  Rogers  did  not  wish  for  an 
inquiry  into  his  conduct  by  the  House  of  Bishops,  he 
would  have  permitted  them  to  engage  in  it,  without 
entering  his  solemn  protest  against  it  ?  Can  you 
suppose  that  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop  White,  whose  im- 
partiality and  mildness  are  so  universally  acknowl- 
edged, — -  that  Bishop  Moore,  who  had  been  repre- 
sented by  Mr.  Rogers  as  friendly  to  him,  —  that 
Bishop  Parker,  who  had  just  made  his  solemn  vows  at 
the  altar,  would  have  forced  Mr.  Rogers  to  an  inquiry 
if  he  had  not  solicited  it ;  —  would  declare  that  they 
had  made  a  full  inquiry  and  fair  examination  of  the 
subject,  if  such  inquiry  and  examination  had  not  been 
made  ?  Can  you  suppose  that  these  venerable  Bish- 
ops of  the  Church  would  have  violated  every  obliga- 
tion of  truth  and  justice  as  well  as  the  most  solemn 
vows  of  office  by  condemning  an  innocent  man  ? 
Could  Mr.  Rogers  have  had  a  trial  before,  a  more  im- 
partial tribunal  ?     Or  can  you  suppose  that,  after  the 


42  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

House  of  Bishops  had  made  a  full  inquiry  and  pro- 
nounced their  opinion,  anything  else  was  left  to  the 
Bishop  of  Connecticut  than  to  carry  their  decision 
into  effect  ?  Mr.  Rogers  made  an  appeal  to  the  House 
of  Bishops.  They  thought  proper  to  investigate  his 
conduct  and  pronounce  a  decision.  The  Canons  of 
the  Church  of  Connecticut  in  regard  to  the  trial  of 
clergymen  could  here  have  no  operation.  The 
Bishop  of  Connecticut  was  the  agent  to  carry  the 
decision  of  the  House  of  Bishops  into  effect.  Mr. 
Rogers  has  been  solemnly  degraded  from  the  ministry 
after  a  full  investigation  of  his  conduct,  and  a  discus- 
sion in  regard  to  him  by  the  highest  authority  in  the 
Church.  We  entreat  you  by  your  character  as 
churchmen,  by  the  memory  of  your  forefathers  who 
cherished  the  Church  with  inviolable  fidelity ;  —  we 
entreat  you  by  the  prospect  of  that  awful  tribunal  at 
which  all  mankind  must  be  judged,  to  regard  the 
Divine  injunction,  '  Hear  the  Church.'  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Apostle,  we  exhort  you,  brethren, 
'  Put  from  you  that  unworthy  person.'  Remember  the 
injunction  of  our  Lord :  '  If  any  man  refuse  to  hear 
the  Church,  let  him  be  unto  you  as  a  heathen  man 
and  a  publican.'  In  the  spirit  of  meekness  and  affec- 
tion, we  entreat  you.  Rend  not  that  Divine  body, 
the  Church  which  your  Redeemer  purchased  with  his 
blood.  For  ourselves  we  most  solemnly  declare,  that 
mindful  of  the  commission  given  to  us  by  our  Divine 
Master  and  relying  on  his  promise,  that  He  will  be 
with  His  Church  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  we  shall  esteem  it  our  sacred  duty  to  preserve 
inviolate  the    authority   committed   to   us :   and   we 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  43 

trust  that  what  is  thus  done  by  the  lawful  governors 
of  the  Church  on  earth,  will  be  ratified  in  heaven."1 

A  copy  of  the  foregoing  document,  signed  by  Mr. 
Bronson  as  chairman  of  the  Committee,  was  deliv- 
ered to  Mr.  Leeds  and  a  resolution  of  the  Convocation 
next  morning  shows  the  manner  of  its  reception,  and 
the  extent  to  which  the  misguided  adherents  of  Rog- 
ers had  allowed  their  passions  to  run.  The  resolution 
was,  —  "  That  Mr.  Cary  Leeds  be  informed  that  the 
Convocation  have  received  his  communication  of 
October  16th,  accompanied  with  a  certain  vote  of  a 
meeting  held  at  St.  John's  Church  in  Stamford  on  the 
27th  day  of  May,  1805,  attested  by  Isaac  Holly,  Jr., 
by  which  they  have  declared  that  they  are  not  un- 
der the  direction,  nor  amenable  to  the  authority,  of 
any  bishop.  This  Convocation  have  therefore  no 
further  communication  to  make  to  Mr.  Leeds  on  this 
subject." 

Here  was  a  step  in  the  direction  of  actual  schism. 
It  was  breaking  away  from  the  counsels  which  ought 
to  have  been  heeded,  and  rashly  setting  aside  the 
order  and  polity  of  the  Church.  No  parish  pursuing 
such  a  course  could  expect  to  be  represented  in  the 
Diocesan  Convention,  and  it  was  not  surprising,  there- 
fore, that  a  vote  was  afterwards  passed  in  that  body, 
excluding  a  lay  representation  from  those  "  who 
should  employ  any  person  to  officiate  among  them, 
who  had  been  suspended  or  degraded  from  his  clerical 
office."  This  action  might  have  been  regarded,  for  a 
time,  with  indifference  by  the  friends  of  Rogers; 
but  in  the  end,  even  supposing  the  sentence  of  the 
ecclesiastical    authority    against    him    premature,   it 

1  MS.  Records  of  Convocation. 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

would  operate  to  their  disadvantage  and  put  them  in 
the  wrong  for  rejecting  wholly  the  discipline  of  a 
kingdom  which  is  not  of  this  world.  "Religion" 
says  Dr.  Chandler,  "  being  a  matter  of  free  choice,  for 
which  we  are  ordinarily  accountable  to  Him  only 
who  will  hereafter  judge  us  for  our  moral  behavior ; 
and  the  Church,  considered  with  relation  to  civil 
power,  being,  in  the  very  nature  of  it,  a  voluntary 
society ;  it  is  left  to  men's  consciences  to  determine 
wmether  they  will  become  members  of  it  or  not.  But 
after  they  have  become  members,  the  laws  of  the 
Church  are  in  force  against  them,  and  they  are  subject, 
in  ecclesiastical  matters,  to  the  authority  of  those  who 
govern  it."  Principles  cannot  be  made  false  by  mis- 
takes or  oversights,  nor  does  the  mere  use  of  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer  constitute  a  man  an  Epis- 
copalian. He  must  love  and  honor  the  teachings  of 
his  communion  and  recognize  the  authority  of  a 
bishop  —  of  a  bishop,  too,  who  has  a  canonical  claim 
to  his  allegiance. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  45 


CHAPTER  IV. 

EPISCOPAL  ACADEMY,  AND   RESIGNATION  OF  DR.  SMITH;    RENEW- 
AL   OF    THE  CASE   OF   AMMI   ROGERS;    AND  ORGANIZATION  OF 

parishes. 

a.   d.   1805-1809. 

General  inquiries  into  the  state  of  the  Institution 
at  Cheshire  were  authorized  from  time  to  time,  and 
from  the  report  of  a  special  committee  to  the  Annual 
Convention  of  1805,  which  is  entered  in  full  upon 
the  journal  for  that  year,  it  appears,  that  instead  of 
flourishing,  "  the  number  of  students  was  gradually 
diminishing,  the  building  going  to  decay,  and  the  in- 
stitution itself  sinking  in  reputation."  It  was  not 
determined  whether  these  unfavorable  appearances 
arose  from  any  deficiency  in  its  organization,  neglect 
or  mismanagement  of  those  entrusted  with  its  inter- 
ests, or  from  the  place  of  its  establishment.  The 
belief,  however,  was  expressed  that  they  resulted  "  in 
some  measure  from  its  location  in  the  vicinity  of  a 
flourishing  university,  and  in  a  town  where  it  received 
very  little  patronage  or  encouragement ;  "  and  further 
inquiry  into  its  affairs,  and  into  the  causes  of  its  pres- 
ent condition  was  recommended  and  approved. 

The  next  Annual  Convention,  composed  of  fifteen 
clergymen  and  twenty-two  laymen,  was  held  in  Chesh- 
ire, and  though  no  report  appears  upon  the  journal 
of  that  year  in  regard  to  the  further  inquiries  which 


46  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

had  been  previously  recommended,  yet  there  is  an 
important  entry  made  towards  the  close  of  the  ses- 
sion, which  covers  the  whole  ground  and  lets  us  into 
the  secret  history  of  the  declining  reputation  of  the 
institution.  It  is  the  resignation  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Smith,  couched  in  peculiar  phraseology  and  addressed : 
"To  the  Convention  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  of  Connecticut,  in  session  this  fifth  day  of 
June,  a.  d.  1806. 

"  Whereas  missives  have  passed  between  the  Board 
of  Trustees  and  me,  whereby  certain  articles  have 
been  interchangeably  acceded  to  by  both  parties,  I 
hereby  request  this  Convention  to  accept  of  my  res- 
ignation of  the  office  of  Principal  of  the  Episcopal 
Academy  of  Connecticut,  and  upon  their  acceptance 
of  the  same,  I  shall  consider  myself  as  detached  from 
all  connection  with  the  said  Academy,  either  as  to  its 
internal  or  external  regimen  or  the  emoluments 
thereof,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  October  next." 

The  resignation  was  accepted,  and  the  Convention, 
without  appointing  a  successor,  adjourned  to  meet  in 
Newtown  on  the  eighth  day  of  the  ensuing  October. 
The  "  missives  "  that  passed  between  Dr.  Smith  and 
the  Trustees  were  not,  as  may  be  inferred  from  the 
tenor  of  his  letter,  altogether  of  a  pleasant  nature. 
Charges  amounting  to  an  impeachment  were  brought 
against  him,  and  the  records  of  the  Board  show  that 
the  final  adjustment  of  the  matter  was  far  from  being 
mutually  satisfactory.  Perhaps  the  measures  resorted 
to  by  one  party  to  effect  their  object,  were  not  taken 
with  sufficient  reference  to  the  peculiar  temperament 
of  the  other.  The  dignity  of  self-respect,  like  any 
other  moral  quality,  is  more  easily  lost  than  regained ; 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  47 

and  corporate  bodies,  dividing  up  the  responsibility  of 
their  actions,  seldom  allow  enough  for  private  and 
individual  character. 

The  Convention,  which  adjourned  to  meet  in  New- 
town, elected  the  Rev.  Tillotson  Bronson  to  supply 
the  vacancy  thus  created,  and  he  accepted  the  office 
and  entered  at  once  upon  its  duties.  For  about  eight 
years  he  had  been  the  Rector  of  the  parish  in  Water- 
bury,  but  towards  the  close  of  1805  "  the  high  price 
demanded  on  all  the  necessaries  of  life  and  the  increas- 
ing expenses  of  his  family  obliged  him  to  ask  for  a 
proportionable  increase  in  his  salary."  This,  though 
advocated  by  many  of  the  more  substantial  friends  of 
the  Church,  was  refused,  and  consequently  he  took 
his  leave  of  the  people  in  a  farewell  discourse,  and 
removed  to  New  Haven,  to  conduct  the  u  Church- 
man's Magazine."  He  was  the  editor  of  that  useful 
periodical,  when  appointed  to  the  charge  of  the  Acad- 
emy, and  except  during  the  interval  of  its  publication 
out  of  the  Diocese,  he  continued  to  add  to  his  other 
labors  the  responsibility  of  arranging  the  matter  and 
superintending  the  press. 

At  this  adjourned  Convention  in  Newtown,  an  ef- 
fort was  again  made  to  reopen  the  case  of  Ammi 
Rogers,  and  John  Nichols,  a  lay  delegate  from  Water- 
bury,  introduced  a  resolution  requesting  the  Bishop 
to  revoke  his  sentence  of  degradation  and  leave  the 
offender  "  to  be  proceeded  against  agreeably  to  the 
Constitution  and  Canons  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Connecticut."  The  Convention  decided  that  it  was 
not  competent  to  judge  respecting  the  sentence,  and 
after  its  final  adjournment  the  Bishop  and  clergy  met 
in  Convocation  and  declared  "that  in  their  opinion 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  only  proper  board  for  redress  of  grievances  com- 
plained of  by  said  Rogers  in  consequence  of  his  sus- 
pension and  degradation  "  was  the  House  of  Bishops, 
to  whose  decision  they  expressed  themselves  ever 
ready  to  submit.  Through  a  committee  they  also 
prepared  a  letter,  which  they  directed  to  be  signed 
by  the  Secretary  and  transmitted  to  the  several 
bishops  who  were  present  at  the  last  General  Con- 
vention. The  letter  is  given  here  in  full,  for  it  shows 
their  desire  to  bring  this  troublesome  business  to  an 
end  in  any  way  that  would  preserve  "the  honor  of 
God's  Church,"  and  further  "  the  prosperity  of  true 
religion." 

"  Right  Rev.  Sir  :  The  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  with 
the  advice  of  his  presbyters  in  Convocation  assem- 
bled at  Cheshire  in  the  month  of  October  of  the 
year  1804,  passed  sentence  of  degradation  against 
Mr.  Ammi  Rogers.  In  taking  this  step,  the  Bishop 
conceived  himself  warranted  by  the  proceedings  had 
with  regard  to  the  said  Mr.  Rogers  before  the  House 
of  Bishops  at  New  York.  This  opinion  was  formed 
on  the  consideration  of  the  full  and  solemn  hearings 
that  were  given  to  Mr.  Rogers  and  the  delegation 
from  Connecticut,  and  on  the  conceived  impropriety 
of  again  calling  in  question  facts  which  the  highest 
ecclesiastical  authority  in  our  Church  had  said  were 
proved.  Having  nothing  in  view,  as  is  hoped  and 
believed,  but  the  honor  of  God's  Church  and  the  pros- 
perity of  true  religion,  it  is  found  with  regret  that  a 
different  opinion  has  been  expressed  by  two  of  the 
members  of  the  House  of  Bishops,  in  their  affidavits 
given  to  Mr.  Rogers ;  which  has  exposed  the  Church 
in  Connecticut  to  much  inconvenience  and  trouble, 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  49 

and  the  dangers  of  an  unhappy  schism  are  greatly 
increased  by  the  efforts  now  carried  on  by  the  said 
Rogers  and  his  adherents. 

"  If  these  evils  are  to  be  ascribed  to  the  governors 
of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  in  consequence  of  their 
erroneous  conclusions  from  what  was  done  at  New 
York,  they  flatter  themselves  that  it  was  the  error  of 
the  head  and  not  of  the  heart.  But  however  this 
may  be,  they  stand  ready  to  be  corrected  by  the  com- 
petent authority.  And  being  disposed  to  do  every- 
thing in  their  power  for  the  peace  of  the  Church,  they 
do  hereby  request  that  you  will,  in  conjunction  with 
the  other  bishops  concerned,  transmit  a  statement  of 
your  view  of  the  whole  subject,  together  with  your 
advice  to  Connecticut  how  it  would  be  prudent  in  the 
present  state  of  things  to  proceed  ;  and  particularly 
whether  it  would  be  advisable  to  give  Mr.  Rogers  a  new 
trial  on  the  ground  of  nullity  in  the  act  of  degradation. 

"  Your  advice  on  this,  or  any  other  point  that  may 
tend  to  remove  the  unhappy  embarrassments  under 
which  the  Church  is  laboring,  will  be  thankfully  re- 
ceived and  seriously  weighed  and  considered." 

Answers  to  this  letter  from  the  three  bishops  to 
whom  it  was  severally  addressed  were  read  to  the 
Convocation  which  met  at  Watertown  on  the  second 
day  of  June,  1807.  Bishop  White,  in  his  "Memoirs  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church," 2  has  a  note  in  refer- 
ence to  the  Clergy  of  Connecticut  desiring  advice  on 
the  question  of  again  taking  up  the  case  of  Ammi 
Rogers  and  granting  him  a  new  trial.  Both  he  and 
Bishop  Moore  were  in  favor  of  the  measure  ;  "  but,"  he 
adds  rather  sharply,  "  it  did  not  take  place.     It  would 

i  MS.  Kecords  of  Convocation.  2  p.  190 

VOL.  11.  4 


50  HISTORY    OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

have  been  more  discreet  in  them  to  have  withheld 
their  advice,  until  they  should  have  known  that  it 
would  have  effect."  Bishop  Claggett,  who  went  very 
extensively  into  the  merits  of  the  sentence  of  degrada- 
tion and  recited  the  history  of  the  action  which  led 
to  it,  differed  in  opinion  from  those  two  prelates,  and 
thought  that  nothing  but  reordination  could  "  restore 
Mr.  Rogers  to  his  former  standing  in  the  Christian 
ministry."  His  letter,1  which  is  too  long  to  be  inserted 
in  this  place,  undoubtedly  had  its  influence  in  pre- 
venting the  Bishop  and  clergy  of  Connecticut  from 
pronouncing  their  own  degradation  a  nullity. 

The  excitement  produced  by  his  imaginary  wrongs 
was  meat  and  drink  to  Rogers,  and  he  poured  his  com- 
plaints into  the  ears  not  only  of  those  who  sym- 
pathized with  him,  but  of  all  who  were  disposed  to 
listen.  For  many  years,  hardly  a  convention  or  con- 
vocation in  the  Diocese  was  held  that  he  did  not  flood 
with  his  papers  or  visit  with  his  importunities.  He 
had  his  friends  to  bolster  up  his  cause,  and  afford  him 
a  medium  through  which  to  operate,  and  hence  Bish- 
op Jarvis,  in  his  address  to  the  Annual  Convention 
of  1807,  —  which  was  the  first  address  ever  printed 
in  the  Journal,  —  called  attention  to  the  office  of  the 
Episcopate  and  earnestly  rebuked  any  disregard  of  its 
rights  and  powers. 

"  The  firm  belief,"  said  he,  "  that  ecclesiastical  au- 
thority, in  its  fullest  extent,  was  essential  not  only  to 
the  well  ordering,  but  even  to  the  very  being  of  the 
Church  in  this  country,  caused  our  predecessors  to 
plead  so  strongly  as  they  did  for  the  obtaining  of  it. 
From  their  public  communications,  we  learn  what  evils 

1  Appendix  A. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  51 

they  expected  would  be  remedied,  and  what  benefits 
would  be  enjoyed,  by  having  resident  bishops  in  the 
American  Church.  One  particular  advantage,  preem- 
inently conducive,  in  their  opinion,  to  its  welfare  and 
reputation,  would  be  the  complete  information  which 
the  bishop  could  obtain,  or  the  personal  knowledge  he 
would  have  of  those  who  should  be  presented  to  him 
for  ordination ;  and  thereby  the  greater  security  would 
be  established  that  no  disqualified  or  unworthy  per- 
sons would  get  admission  into  the  ministry.  But  in 
case  such  instances  should  happen  and  the  Church 
should  suffer  scandal,  the  bishop  would  be  at  hand, 
to  correct,  to  suspend,  and,  if  necessary,  to  silence,  to 
depose  from  their  office,  and  even  to  excommunicate 
from  the  society  of  Christians,  the  vicious  and  incor- 
rigible. 

"  I  ask,  then,  gentlemen,  whether  the  Episcopate  in 
possession  be  considered  as  holding  primitive  powers ; 
and  whether  it  be  now  viewed  in  the  same  liy-lit  in 
which  they  viewed  it,  who  contended  so  long  and  so 
earnestly  to  procure  its  establishment  among  us  ?  Is 
it  found  to  be  a  remedy  for  the  evils  complained  of, 
and  does  it  experimentally  yield  to  the  Church  that 
good  which  was  expected  ?  During  the  time  in  which 
our  Church  was  destitute  of  resident  bishops,  there 
were  among  the  clergy  men  of  acknowledged  abilities, 
and  of  characters  approved  for  their  activity,  learning, 
and  piety.  How  watchful  were  the  endeavors  of  these 
clergymen  may  be  easily  imagined  •  and  yet  by  them 
we  have  it  asserted,  as  one  of  the  evils  for  which  they 
solicited  the  Episcopate  as  a  redress,  that  vicious  men 
from  this  country,  by  means  of  testimonials,  either 
forged  or  obtained,  God  knows  how,  procured  ordina- 


52  HISTORY    OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

tion  in  England  ;  and  after  having  been  invested  with 
the  sacred  office,  had  been  sent  back  to  take  charge 
of  the  souls  of  others  —  in  the  prosecution  of  which 
work  they  acted  as  if  they  had  not  or  imagined  that 
they  had  not  any  souls  of  their  own. 

"Are  we  not  compelled  to  own  that  the  same  fact 
has  taken  place  since  bishops  have  been  present 
among  us  ?  After  a  solemn  investigation,  full  proof  of 
fact,  and  actual  deposition  from  office,  have  not  num- 
bers arisen  to  support  the  degraded  person,  even 
while  he  continues  to  minister,  in  defiance  of  the  au- 
thority which  has  stripped  him  of  all  right  so  to  do  ? 
By  this  contumelious  and  ruinous  procedure,  a  schism 
commenced,  the  future  extent  and  continuation  of 
w%ich  is  indeed  uncertain  ;  but  most  certain  has  been 
the  contempt  shown  to  ecclesiastical  authority.  The 
false  tongue  of  the  transgressor  has  found  listening 
ears,  and  minds  disposed  to  credit  his  tales,  and  to  as- 
sociate with  him  in  the  work  of  mischief.  By  them 
the  bishop's  character  has  been  loaded  with  obloquy 
and  reproach,  and  Korah  (though  thus  to  use  the 
name  is  degrading  even  to  Korah),  in  the  eye  of  his 
company,  has  become  the  saint  and  the  bishop  the 
sinner. 

"  Repeated  efforts  to  bring  this  subject  before  the 
Convention,  though  every  attempt  to  do  it  was,  in 
my  apprehension,  a  fresh  outrage  upon  the  order  and 
authority  of  the  Church,  is  the  cause  of  my  speaking 
in  this  manner.  Had  circumstances  been  such  as 
would  have  directed  me  to  call  your  attention  to  the 
ordinary  concerns  only  of  the  Church,  according  to 
her  well  known  rules,  and  sound  doctrines,  it  would 
have  been  far,  far  more  congenial  with  my  wishes." 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  53 

Failing  in  all  his  attempts  to  be  recognized  and  re- 
stored, and  furnishing,  as  an  eminent  lawyer  of  that 
time  said,  an  example  of  the  triumph  of  justice  over 
law,  Rogers  again  ventured  to  carry  his  case  be- 
fore the  House  of  Bishops  in  the  shape  of  an  appeal 
from  the  sentence  of  degradation  under  which  he  lay. 
Two  bishops  only  —  White  and  Claggett  —  were  pre- 
sent at  the  General  Convention  which  met  in  the  city 
of  Baltimore,  May,  1808,  and  on  the  fourth  day  of 
the  session,  the  "  documents  signed  Ammi  Rogers," 
accompanied  by  a  letter  from  his  counsel,  were  under 
consideration  ;  and  in  the  final  decision 1  which  was 
rendered,  the  House  both  confirmed  its  previous  ac- 
tion and  refused  to  interfere  with  the  proceedings  of 
the  Bishop  and  clergy  of  Connecticut.  Not  satisfied 
with  this  decision,  he  sent  in,  on  a  subsequent  day, 
"  certain  petitions  addressed  to  the  General  Conven- 
tion," but  as  the  resolution  had  been  taken  by  the 
Bishops  to  dismiss  the  subject  of  his  case  finally  from 
consideration,  they  passed  them,  without  opening,  to 
the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Delegates,  where  the 
action  upon  them  was  equally  summary  and  decisive. 

Soon  after  this,  Rogers  left  Connecticut  and  removed 
to  New  York,  locating  himself  in  the  neighborhood 
of  his  earliest  ministrations.  While  there  he  brought 
a  suit  against  Bishop  Jarvis  for  slander  before  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States,  to  be  holden  at 
New  Haven,  April,  1811,  claiming  damages  in  the 
sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars.  The  Convention  of 
the  Diocese  appointed  a  committee  of  laymen  to  em- 
ploy legal  coimsel  to  defend  in  the  suit  thus  insti- 
tuted, and  great  pains  were  taken  to  collect  testimony 

1  Appendix  B. 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

to  rebut  his  witnesses  and  establish  the  righteousness 
of  his  degradation  from  the  ministry.  Declining  to 
appear  when  the  case  was  called,  he  was  non-suited, 
and  "  the  Court  considered  that  Bishop  Jarvis  should 
recover  against  him.  $316.24  —  cost  and  charges  laid 
out  by  him  for  his  defence  "  —  and  accordingly  he 
had  execution  for  that  amount.1 

But  the  anger  of  this  degraded  priest  was  not 
yet  burnt  out,  and  Bishop  Jarvis  going  afterwards  to 
the  City  of  New  York  to  assist  in  the  consecration 
of  Griswold  and  Hobart,  was  sued  by  him  before 
the  Supreme  Court  of  that  State  and  damages  once 
more  laid  at  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  issuing 
papers  against  him  without  authority,  breaking  up 
his  settlements,  and  causing  distress  and  trouble  to 
himself  and  family.  The  suit  was  pending  when 
death  came  to  the  Bishop  and  terminated  all  further 
proceedings.  He  had  been,  in  a  measure,  unable  to 
silence  the  discontents  which  sprang  up  in  certain 
quarters  from  the  operation  of  what  he  conscien- 
tiously believed  to  be  the  exercise  of  his  Episcopal 
duty.  The  disturbance  of  the  Diocese  was  to  him, 
with  his  infirmities,  a  personal  trouble,  and  this 
wretched  business  for  years  gave  him  no  peace.  Per- 
petually recurring  in  different  forms,  and  sometimes 
instigated  or  encouraged  by  those  who  undoubtedly 
had  the  welfare  of  the  Church  at  heart,  it  was  the 
one  great  trial  of  his  Episcopate  and  shaded  with  op- 
pressive sorrow  his  latest  days. 

The  General  Convention  which  met  at  Baltimore  in 
1808  was  composed  of  two  bishops,  fourteen  clergy- 
men, and  thirteen  lay  delegates.     Seven  States  were 

1  Records  of  Circuit  Court,  New  Haven,  1811. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  55 

represented ;  among  them,  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island.  Bishop  Jarvis  was  prevented  by  the  state  of 
his  health  from  attempting  the  journey,  but  two 
clerical  and  two  lay  delegates  were  present  from  this 
Diocese,  and  bore  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  delibera- 
tions of  that  body.  Though  thinly  attended  it  was  an 
important  meeting.  For  then  all  the  Canons  were 
revised,  thirty  new  hymns  adopted,  certain  resolu- 
tions in  regard  to  duels  and  divorces  passed,  and  a  com- 
mittee appointed  to  make  a  solemn  and  affectionate 
address  to  all  the  dioceses  and  urge  upon  them  "  the 
propriety,  necessity  and  duty  of  sending  regularly  a 
deputation  to  the  General  Convention."  A  pastoral 
letter  from  the  House  of  Bishops,  prepared  in  com- 
pliance with  a  Canon  enacted  in  1804,  was  now  for 
the  first  time  issued,  and  efforts  were  put  forth  to 
secure  in  future  fuller  statistics  and  a  more  accurate 
and  general  view  of  the  state  of  the  Church  through- 
out the  country.  The  pastoral  letter  touched  upon 
doctrine,  worship,  discipline,  and  the  end  of  all,  a  holy 
life  and  conversation.  The  part  relating  to  discipline 
opened  with  this  paragraph  :  "  And  here  we  wish  our 
clerical  and  our  lay  brethren  to  be  aware,  as,  on  one 
hand,  of  the  responsibility  under  which  we  lie ;  so,  on 
the  other,  of  the  caution  which  justice  and  impartiality 
require.  The  Church  has  made  provision  for  the  de- 
gradation of  unworthy  clergymen.  It  is  for  us  to  sup- 
pose that  there  are  none  of  that  description,  until  the 
contrary  is  made  known  to  us  in  our  respective  places, 
in  the  manner  which  the  Canons  have  prescribed  :  and 
if  the  contrary  to  what  we  wish  is,  in  any  instance,  to 
be  found,  it  lies  on  you,  our  clerical  and  lay  brethren, 
to  present  such   faulty  conduct ;  although  with  due 


56  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

regard  to  proof;  and,  above  all,  in  a  temper  which 
shows  the  impelling  motive  to  be  the  glory  of  God, 
and  the  sanctity  of  the  reputation  of  his  Church." 

The  first  published  statistics  of  the  Diocese  of  Con- 
necticut appeared  in  the  Journal  of  the  Annual  Con- 
vention for  1809,  under  the  head  of  Notitice  ParochiaUs. 
Eight  clergymen,  holding  pastoral  relations  to  nine- 
teen parishes,  reported  the  number  of  their  respective 
families,  communicants,  baptisms,  marriages,  and  fune- 
rals. This  was  in  obedience  to  the  recently  enacted 
Canon  of  the  General  Convention  "  providing  for  an 
accurate  view  of  the  state  of  the  Church  from  time 
to  time,"  but  the  requirements  of  the  Canon  appear  to 
have  been  little  heeded  and  the  view  of  the  Church 
was  fragmentary,  for  returns  were  made  by  only  one 
clergyman  in  New  Haven  County,  Rev.  Chauncey 
Prindle,  and  by  none  of  the  rectors  of  parishes  in  the 
towns  lying  along  and  east  of  the  Connecticut  River. 
The  whole  number  of  clergy  in  the  Diocese  at  that  date, 
including  the  Principal  of  the  Academy  at  Cheshire, 
was  twenty-six,  and  to  them  was  committed  the  care 
of  souls  scattered  through  seventy-three  parishes  and 
mission  stations.  Though  they  had  full  enough  to  do 
to  occupy  and  till  the  old  ground  without  striking 
out  into  new  and  promising  fields  of  labor,  yet  they 
watched  the  opportunities  of  extending  the  Church, 
and  sowed  good  seed  wherever  they  had  reason  to 
believe  it  would  germinate  and  grow. 

In  the  period  embraced  by  this  and  the  two  pre- 
ceding chapters,  parochial  organizations  were  effected, 
or  houses  of  worship  begun  and  partially  completed  in 
Meriden,  Woodbridge  (now  Bethany),  in  Salem  (now 
Naugatuck),   in   New    Stratford    (now    Monroe),    in 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  57 

Bridgeport,  Bethlehem,  Kent,  Litchfield,  Milton  (a 
part  of  Litchfield),  Salisbury,  Sharon,  Warehouse 
Point,  and  Glastenbury.  Sometimes,  after  the  organi- 
zation of  a  parish,  the  private  dwelling  of  a  zealous 
and  influential  churchman  served  as  a  sanctuary,  un- 
til better  provision  could  be  secured.  A  few  months 
before  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Jarvis,  movements 
were  made  to  build  a  church  at  Chewstown,  now  Sey- 
mour, which  were  ultimately  successful ;  and  in  other 
places  where  the  clergy  performed  occasional  services 
an  interest  in  the  Liturgy  was  shown,  and  a  love  for 
the  Episcopal  form  of  worship  ripened  into  substantial 
efforts  to  provide  for  its  maintenance.  Dissensions  in 
the  Congregational  societies  growing  out  of  the  old 
doctrines  of  Calvinism  frequently  sent  many  of  their 
members  adrift,  and  more  would  have  found  their 
way  into  the  Church,  had  the  clergy  been  numerous 
enough  to  supply  the  demand  for  ministrations,  and 
the  Bishop  been  ready  to  give  personal  attention  to 
exigencies  as  they  arose.  Revivals  of  religion  in  the 
standing  order,  from  the  beginning  of  the  century  and 
for  some  time  before,  had  been  very  general  not  only 
in  Connecticut,  but  throughout  New  England,  and 
our  own  Communion  quietly  reaped  its  share  of  the 
abiding  fruits. 

The  parish  at  New  Preston  (now  Marbledale  in 
Washington),  originally  numbering  among  its  mem- 
bers churchmen  from  several  adjoining  towns,  and 
which  had  a  house  of  worship  before  the  Revolution, 
was  one  of  the  first  to  reorganize  after  the  acknowl- 
edgement of  American  Independence  and  to  quote  its 
own  record  "  as  the  late  law  of  the  State  doth  direct." 
The  old  dilapidated  building,  which  had  been  nearly 


58  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

destroyed  during  the  war,  was  finally  disposed  of,  and 
in  1796  the  parish  purchased  the  "  Friends'  Meeting- 
house," an  edifice  situated  within  the  limits  of  New 
Milford,  a  little  more  than  a  mile  west  of  the  present 
church  in  Marbledale.  It  was  built  for  the  noted  en- 
thusiast, Jemima  Wilkinson,  and  there  for  a  time  she 
published  her  religious  extravagances  and  obtained 
followers.  The  better  purpose  to  which  it  was  after- 
wards put  for  thirty  years  shows  that  her  teaching, 
like  that  of  all  fanatics,  left  behind  no  permanent 
impression. 

The  Congregational  minister  at  Bethany,  Isaac 
Jones,  —  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  and  a  descend- 
ant of  William  Jones,  Deputy  Governor  of  the  New 
Haven  Colony,  —  changed  his  ecclesiastical  relations 
in  1808,  and  a  large  portion  of  the  people  whom  he 
had  been  serving  followed  him  into  the  Episcopal 
Church.  It  was  a  secession  which  marked  an  impor- 
tant passage  in  the  history  of  the  Diocese,  and  traces 
of  its  influence  remain  to  this  day  in  the  town  where 
it  occurred.  The  parish  there  —  which  took  imme- 
diate steps  to  erect  a  new  and  larger  house  of  worship 
—  passed  a  vote,  Nov.  6,  1809,  recommending  Isaac 
Jones  "as  a  person  worthy  and  well  qualified  for  a 
Gospel  minister  in  the  Episcopal  Church,"  and  early 
in  the  autumn  of  the  next  year  he  was  ordained  a 
Deacon  in  New  York  by  Bishop  Benjamin  Moore,  and 
subsequently  a  priest  by  Bishop  Hobart.  The  new 
church  at  Bethany  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Jarvis, 
September,  1810  —  the  parish  at  that  time  being  un- 
der the  pastoral  oversight  of  the  Rev.  Reuben  Ives  of 
Cheshire,  who  was  a  judicious  and  zealous  moulder  of 
the  crude  material  that  had  been  suddenly  thrown  in- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  59 

to  his  hands.  This  was  the  eleventh  and  last  church 
in  the  Diocese  consecrated  by  the  second  Bishop  of 
Connecticut.  The  same  number  had  been  consecrated 
by  his  predecessor.1 

Under  the  auspices  of  Mr.  Rayner,  Rector<  of  Christ 
Church,  Hartford,  congregations  were  gathered  about 
this  time  in  Warehouse  Point  and  Glastenbury,  and  in 
both  places  edifices  of  wood  were  soon  constructed. 
He  himself,  in  his  parochial  report  at  the  Annual  Con- 
vention of  1812,  which  was  the  year  after  his  re- 
moval from  Hartford  to  Huntington,  says :  "In  1802, 
1803,  and  1804,  collected  and  organized  a  parish  at 
Warehouse  Point,  consisting  of  about  one  hundred 
families,  who  have  erected  an  elegant  church,  and  a 
clergyman  in   deacon's   orders   is   now   settled   with 

them." 

1 

1  "  Churches  consecrated  in  Connecticut  by  Bishop  Seabury :  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Nor  walk ;  St.  James'  Church,  New  London,  Sept.  20,  1787;  Christ 
Church,  Norwich  Landing  ;  St.  John's  Church,  Stratfield  ;  Trinity  Church, 
Newtown,  Sept.  19,   1793  ;   St.  John's   Church,  New  Milford,   Sept.    25, 

1793  ;  Christ's  Church,  Westbury,  Nov.  18,  1794;  Church,  Tash- 

away,  June  8,  1795  ;  St.  Stephen's  Church,  East  Haddani,  Oct.  18,  1795  ; 
St.  Matthew's  Church,  Plymouth,  Oct.  21,1795;  St.  Mark's  Church, 
Harrington  [Harwinton],  Oct.  22,  1795. 

"  This  record  is  made  from  an  entry  on  a  loose  piece  of  paper,  written, 
attested,  and  signed  in  the  following  words : — 

" '  The  above  is  a  list  of  churches  which  have  been  consecrated  in  Con- 
necticut by  Samuel, 

'  Bishop  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.' 

"  Churches  consecrated  by  Bishop  Jarvis  :  St.  John's  Church,  Water- 
bury,  Nov.  1,  1797  ;  St.  Peter's  Church,  Plymouth,  Nov.  2,  1797  ;  Trinity 
Church,  Fairfield,  Oct.  18,  1798  ;  St.  James'  Church,  Derby,  Nov.  20,  1799  ; 
Christ  Church,  Hartford,  Nov.  11,  1801  ;  St.  James'  Church,  Danbury, 
Oct.  6,  1802  ;  St.  John's  Church,  Bridgeport,  Sept.  16,  1807  ;  St.  Peter's 
Church,  New  Stratford,  Sept.  18,  1809;  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Symsbury, 
Oct.  11,  1808  ;  Christ  Church,  East  Haven,  July  25,  1810;  Christ  Church, 
Bethany,  in  the  town  of  Woodbridge,  Sept.  19,  1810." — MS.  of  Bishop 
Jarvis  in  possession  of  his  grandson,  Rev.  S.  Fermor  Jarvis. 


60  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

About  the  time  of  Mr.  Rayner's  removal  to  Ripton, 
the  church  in  that  place  was  rebuilt  on  the  founda- 
tions of  the  second  edifice,  erected  some  twenty  years 
before ;  and  which  had  been  burnt  to  the  ground 
through  the  carelessness  of  a  young  man  in  shooting 
at  a  dove  upon  the  roof.  He  left  Hartford  in  the 
autumn  of  1811  —  some  warm  friends  desiring  his 
stay,  and  the  majority  of  the  parish  as  desirous  of  a 
change  that  they  might  "  continue  together  in  the 
true  Church,  without  schism  or  separation." *  He  was 
succeeded  by  the  Rev.  Philander  Chase,  who,  for  the 
sake  of  educating  his  son,  had  returned  from  New 
Orleans  to  the  North,  and  was  then  residing  at 
Cheshire  to  avail  himself  of  the  advantages  of  the 
Ej)iscopal  Academy. 

Thus  the  Church  in  Connecticut  slowly  advanced, 
and  gaining  a  little  strength,  the  clergy  became  more 
active  and  the  laity  more  and  more  interested.  Oc- 
casionally a  pamphlet  appeared,  written  by  some  met- 
aphysical controversialist,  who  in  defending  his  own 
tenets  would  severely  assail  the  principles  and  faith 
of  those  who  could  neither  accept  the  system  of  relig- 
ious revivals  and  awakenings  nor  the  cheerless  and 
uncomfortable  doctrine  of  predestination  in  the  Cal- 
vinistic  sense.  But  there  was  always  a  pen  ready  to 
answer  such  attacks  and  out  of  them  grew  "  A  full 
length  portrait  of  Calvinism,"  in  all  its  comely  fea- 
tures and  beautiful  proportions !  by  Dr.  Bowden*  not 
from  the  painting  of  his  own  imagination,  but  from 
the  writings  of  Calvin  himself  and  from  those  who 
were  his  ablest  defenders. 

1  MS.  Letter  of  John  Morgan  to  Bishop  Jarvis,  Oct.  5,  1811. 


IK  CONNECTICUT.  61 


CHAPTER  V. 

ACT  RELATING  TO  RELIGIOUS  SOCIETIES;  WARDENS  AND  VESTRY- 
MEN A  COMMITTEE;  TAXING  AND  GRAND  LEVY;  PETITION  TO 
INCORPORATE  THE  EPISCOPAL  ACADEMY  WITH  COLLEGIATE 
POWERS;  AND  UNION  OF  PARISHES  IN  CURES. 

A.    D.    1809-1811. 

The  law  of  the  State  of  Connecticut  under  which 
the  parishes  after  the  Revolution  were  organized,  con- 
tained no  reference  to  the  Episcopal  Church  as  such. 
All  societies  and  congregations,  instituted  for  public 
religious  worship,  were  placed  on  precisely  the  same 
footing  and  allowed  to  manage  their  affairs  in  their 
own  way,  subject  of  course  to  the  limitations  of  the 
statute.  They  had  "  power  to  provide  for  the  sup- 
port of  public  worship  by  the  rent  or  sale  of  the  pews 
or  slips  in  the  meeting-house,  by  the  establishment  of 
funds,  or  in  any  other  way  they  might  judge  exped- 
ient." At  their  annual  meetings  they  each  appointed 
what  was  called  a  "  society's  committee  "  to  whom  was 
entrusted,  for  the  ensuing  year,  the  proper  business 
of  the  society  and  the  adjustment  and  settlement  of 
all  legal  claims.  The  language  of  the  law  was  Con- 
gregational and  not  in  accordance  with  the  rules  and 
usages  of  the  Church.  The  word  Parish  gave  way  to 
Society,  and  a  Committee  was  substituted  for  Wardens 
and  Vestrymen  —  those   ancient    ecclesiastical   officers 


62  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

who  had  always  sustained  a  relation  to  the  rector, 
and  been  understood  to  be  the  legitimate  guardians 
of  the  interests  of  the  parish.  This  led  to  some  con- 
fusion or  irregularity  in  the  practice  of  the  new  Epis- 
copal organizations.  To  preserve  the  language  of  the 
Church  and  yet  to  act,  as  they  supposed,  strictly 
according  to  law,  many  of  them  not  only  chose  war- 
dens and  vestrymen,  but  a  separate  committee  also, 
and  Bishop  Jarvis  called  attention  to  this  irregularity 
in  his  address  to  the  Annual  Convention  of  1807.  He 
claimed  that  it  was  a  needless  surrender  of  our  rights 
to  adopt  the  phraseology  of  the  law ;  that  as  wardens 
and  vestrymen  were  "  the  ancient  ecclesiastical  officers 
of  a  parish,  to  substitute  a  committee  in  their  stead 
was  to  needlessly  change  the  principles  of  the  Church, 
and  to  adopt  those  which  were  independent  and  Con- 
gregational." The  object  of  his  animadversion  was 
to  bring  all  the  parishes  of  the  Diocese  to  one  uni- 
form practice  and  to  make  them  see  that  they  were 
not  infringing  the  statute  in  its  true  intent  by  con- 
forming to  the  cherished  rules  and  customs  of  their 
own  body.  He  proceeded  briefly  to  define  terms  and 
explain  principles. 

"  In  the  sense,"  said  he,  "  in  which  it  is  used  by  the 
Church, ( society '  means  the  whole  body  of  Christians, 
or  the  Church  universal,  comprehending  under  one 
term  both  the  priesthood  and  the  laity.  To  apply 
this  appellation  to  small  companies  or  parcels  of  peo- 
ple in  particular  districts,  is  as  improper,  according  to 
the  sense  and  usage  of  the  Church,  as  it  would  be  to 
call  a  finger,  or  any  other  member  of  a  man,  his  body. 
The  idea  of  the  sectaries  is  entirely  different ;  ac- 
cording to  their  notion  of  it,  any  number  of  people 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  63 

agreeing  among  themselves,  and  united  for  the  sup- 
port of  assembled  worship,  is  a  society  or  church,  in 
the  full  meaning  of  the  word,  and  consequently  inde- 
pendent of  all  others.  This,  in  our  understanding,  is 
to  make  Christ  have  churches  by  thousands ;  whereas, 
consistent  with  the  unity  of  his  body,  he  has  and  can 
have  but  one.  The  Church  Catholic  in  its  parts,  takes 
distinct  denominations  from  the  different  countries, 
and  different  civil  governments  under  which  it  is 
placed.  Hence  its  notation  is  national,  and  those 
general  branches  are  again  subdivided  into  provinces, 
dioceses,  and  parishes.  In  all  these  divisions  and  sub- 
divisions, the  clergy,  in  their  different  grades  and 
several  departments,  preside  over  it,  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  sacred  ordinances,  for  instruction  and 
for  government,  as  overseers  of  the  flock.  We  de- 
duce it  from  Scriptural  doctrine,  illustrated  by  primi- 
tive practice,  that  in  things  spiritual  the  Church  is  to 
be  ordered  and  governed  by  those  to  whom  Christ 
hath  given  it  in  commission  to  take  the  oversight. 

"  Agreeably  to  the  Canons,  the  parish  ministers  are 
to  be  aided  by  wardens,  chosen  by  the  parishioners. 
Hence,  wardens  are  the  committee  of  the  parish  to 
perform  certain  duties  and  functions  connected  with 
those  of  the  minister  and  needful  for  the  better  ful- 
fillment of  his  office,  and  for  the  welfare  of  the  parish. 
Laying  aside,  therefore,  the  supposition  of  any  speci- 
ality which  may  render  it  necessary  for  the  officers 
of  the  Church  to  appear  in  the  character  specified  by 
the  law  of  the  State,  in  order  that  they  may  enjoy 
the  benefit  of  it,  we  should  in  our  ecclesiastical  busi- 
ness, direct  our  practice  solely  by  the  rules  and  in- 
junctions of  the  Church ;  in  which  the  words  Parish 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

and  Warden  bear  a  very  different  construction  from 
the  legal  forms,  Society  and  Committee? 

The  counsels  thus  given  were  not  followed,  and  the 
practice  of  the  different  parishes  at  their  annual  meet- 
ings continued  with  little  variation  as  before.  For 
half  a  century,  the  general  law  was  untouched  or  un- 
explained 1  by  the  authority  that  enacted  it,  though 
several  attempts  in  the  mean  time  were  made  by  the 
Convention  to  secure  from  the  Legislature  an  act  or 
form  of  incorporation  for  parishes,  more  in  accord- 
ance with  the  spirit  and  usages  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  The  Saybrook  Platform,  as  a  legal  establish- 
ment in  Connecticut,  was  no  longer  in  force,  but 
the  voluntary  system  of  supporting  religion  had  not 
yet  been  adopted.  If  all  were  left  free  to  worship,  and 
connect  themselves  with  whatever  denomination  they 
preferred,  all  were  still  compelled  to  pay  a  tax  for  the 
support  of  some  church.  They  could  not  escape  this 
liability  by  setting  up  the  claim  that  they  were 
"  Jews,  Turks,  Infidels,  and  Heretics  "  and  had  no  in- 
terest in  the  maintenance  and  propagation  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

The  Episcopal   parishes   taxed  their  members  to 

1  A  supplemental  act  was  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  1842  in  these 
words :  — 

"  Whereas  doubts  have  arisen  in  the  minds  of  some,  whether  the  Epis- 
copal Societies  in  this  State  have  been  legally  organized : 

"  Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  in  General  As- 
sembly convened,  that  the  acts  which  have  been  done  by  ecclesiastical 
societies  of  this  State,  organized  under  the  Episcopal  order,  according  to 
the  rules  and  customs  of  said  societies,  shall  be  good  and  effectual  in  law. 
And  that  the  wardens  and  vestrymen  of  said  societies  shall  hereafter  be 
a  society's  committee,  and  shall  have  all  the  powers  in  managing  the  af- 
fairs of  said  societies,  as  are  granted  to  the  committees  of  all  religious 
societies  in  this  State  by  the  statutes  in  such  case  made  and  provided." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  65 

build  churches,  and  to  sustain  religious  services ;  and 
the  Diocesan  Convention  assessed  the  parishes  to  pro- 
vide both  for  the  endowment  of  the  Institution  at 
Cheshire  and  the  increase  of  the  Bishop's  Fund.  Each 
parish  was  required  to  make  an  annual  return  of  what 
was  called  the  "  Grand  Levy," —  that  is,  its  taxable  list, 
according  to  the  last  enrollment,  —  and  upon  this  re- 
turn rested  the  right  of  a  lay  delegate  to  his  seat  in  the 
Convention.  The  resolution  which  fixed  this  rule  was 
adopted  in  1803,  and  the  first  published  Grand  Levy 
appeared  in  the  Journal  of  1806,  and  from  that  time 
onward  for  fifteen  years  the  roll  of  the  lay  delegates 
was  accompanied  by  the  taxable  list  of  the  several 
parishes  which  they  represented.  If  the  list  of  any 
parish  exceeded  the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  such 
parish  was  entitled  to  send  to  the  Convention  two 
delegates. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  changes  since  that 
period  in  the  relative  wealth  of  the  Church  in  Con- 
necticut. In  those  early  days,  as  reported,  Litchfield 
was  stronger  than  Waterbury  or  Hartford.  Wood- 
bridge  was  stronger  than  Meriden,  Huntington  than 
Derby,  Redding  than  Bridgeport,  and  Newtown  than 
New  Haven.  The  agricultural  towns  and  rural  dis- 
tricts have  been  drained  to  supply  the  great  centres 
of  population,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  manufactur- 
ing interests  has  given  importance  to  localities  which 
were  once  poor  and  thinly  inhabited.  The  change  in 
the  modes  of  inland  travel  and  transportation,  the  sub- 
stituting of  the  speedy  rail-car  for  the  slow  stage- 
coach, the  opening  of  thoroughfares  through  hitherto 
untrodden  swamps  and  forests,  the  making  rocky  hills 
smooth  their  faces  and  smile  under  the  hand  of  public 

VOL.  II.  5 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

industry,  the  multiplicity  of  new  inventions,  creating 
new  kinds  of  traffic  and  a  demand  for  the  skill  and 
labor  of  numberless  overseers  and  operatives,  the  in- 
crease in  the  facilities  for  making  and  spending  money, 
the  love  of  luxury  and  self-indulgence,  the  pursuit 
of  learning,  the  culture  of  the  arts,  the  progress  of 
science,  all  these  things  have  helped  to  form  new  cen- 
tres of  influence  and  to  transfer  the  muscle  of  energy 
and  successful  wealth  from  the  country  to  the  town, 
and  from  the  eastern  to  the  western  States.  Occas- 
ionally, the  merchants  who  have  become  princes,  and 
the  manufacturers  whose  prosperity  has  flowed  in 
upon  them  in  a  full  and  steady  stream,  have  returned 
to  the  scenes  of  their  nativity,  and  still  holding  by 
inheritance  or  repossessing  themselves  of  the  lands 
of  their  fathers,  have  enriched  them  with  fertilizing 
agencies  and  beautified  them  with  the  taste  and  im- 
provements  of  modern  cultivation.  Such  men  in  their 
retirement  have  not  forgotten  their  duty  to  the  vil- 
lage church ;  but  where  all  enterprise  has  disappeared 
from  among  the  people  and  decay  has  written  itself 
upon  their  dingy  dwellings  and  barns,  and  there  is 
no  leading  mind  to  quicken  and  direct,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising to  find  spiritual  coldness  and  indifference 
with  irregular  ministrations. 

The  Convention,  at  the  annual  meeting  in  1810, 
renewed  its  efforts  to  obtain  an  enlargement  of  the 
charter  for  the  Diocesan  Institution  at  Cheshire.  As 
the  preamble  expressed  it,  doubts  had  arisen  whether 
the  Trustees  were  "  invested  with  the  power  of  con- 
ferring upon  the  students  the  degrees  and  testimon- 
ials of  literary  proficiency,  usually  granted  in  col- 
leges," *and  as  the  great  objects  contemplated  by  the 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  67 

Convention  could  not  be  accomplished  without  such 
power,  it  was  resolved  to  request  the  Trustees  "  to 
prefer  a  petition  to  the  next  General  Assembly  of  the 
State  of  Connecticut,  praying  that  said  Academy  may 
be  constituted  a  college,  by  the  name  and  style  of 
the  Episcopal  College  of  Connecticut."  The  memo- 
rialists on  the  part  of  the  Board  were  Jonathan  Inger- 
soll,  John  Bowden,  Daniel  Burhans,  Nathan  Smith, 
and  Burrage  Beach ;  and  in  their  petition  they  men- 
tioned that  the  permanent  and  productive  fund 
amounted  to  nearly  fourteen  thousand  dollars,  and 
that  the  number  of  students  who  had  resorted  to  the 
Academy  from  different  parts  of  the  United  States  and 
from  the  West  Indies  had  generally  been  from  fifty  to 
seventy.  Among  other  reasons  why  their  application 
should  be  granted  they  said :  "  That  Institution, 
which  has  been  most  justly  the  pride  and  boast  of 
this  State,  was  established  for  the  open  and  avowed 
purpose  of  propagating  the  religious  sentiments  of 
its  founders.  This  is  the  very  language  of  its  consti- 
tution, which  has  often  received  the  sanction  of  the 
General  Assembly.  The  General  Assembly  early 
adopted,  protected,  patronized,  and  richly  endowed  it, 
in  a  manner  highly  honorable  to  itself,  and  vastly 
beneficial  to  the  State.  Notwithstanding  this,  Yale 
College  has  shared  largely  in  the  munificence  of  Epis- 
copalians, both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe.  The 
donations  which  have,  from  time  to  time,  been 
made  by  the  General  Assembly,  have  been  drawn 
equally  from  Episcopalians,  in  proportion  to  their 
numbers  and  property,  as  from  other  denominations. 
This,  however,  furnishes  no  ground  of  complaint  to 
Episcopalians,   nor   to  the   liberal  and  ingenuous  of 


68  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

other  denominations.  None  can  justly  complain  that 
too  much  has  been  clone  for  Yale  College.  For  it 
never  can,  for  a  moment,  be  presumed  that  the  Gene- 
ral Assembly  of  Connecticut  will  grant  privileges  to 
one  denomination  which,  upon  suitable  application,  it 
will  deny  to  others. 

"  Episcopalians,  as  a  body  of  Christians,  are  in  point 
of  numbers  respectable,  as  supporters  of  legitimate 
government  and  friends  to  good  order  they  yield  to 
none.  About  thirty  colleges  have  been  established  in 
different  parts  of  the  United  States  by  Presbyterians, 
Baptists,  Lutherans,  Methodists,  and  Roman  Catholics, 
all  of  which  have  received  the  sanction  of  the  Legis- 
latures of  the  States  in  which  they  have  been  founded. 
But  not  a  single  college  noiv  exists  in  any  part  of  the 
Union,  which  is  under  the  government  and  instruc- 
tion of  Episcopalians."  * 

The  application,  thus  urged  at  the  October  session 
of  the  General  Assembly  was  granted  in  the  Lower 
House,  but  denied  in  the  Council  or  Senate.  It  was 
encouraging  to  be  heard  with  favor  in  the  popular 
branch  of  the  Legislature,  and  again  the  efforts  were 
repeated  to  obtain  a  charter.  The  General  Conven- 
tion met  in  New  Haven  the  next  year,  and  under- 
standing that  the  establishment  of  a  second  college 
in  Connecticut  under  the  auspices  of  churchmen  was 
contemplated,  each  House  adopted  a  resolution  ex- 
pressing entire  approbation  of  the  measure  and 
earnest  wishes  for  its  success.  The  Church  through- 
out our  country  at  that  time  had  reached  its  lowest 
depression  and  passed  the  depths.  Not  unfrequently 
the  legislative  body  which  does  nothing,  does  wisely, 

1  Original  MS.  of  petitioners. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  69 

and  this  was  somewhat  true  of  the  General  Conven- 
tion which  met  at  New  Haven  in  1811.  Two  bishops 
only  —  White  and  Jarvis  —  were  present.  Bishop 
Claggett,  who  engaged  to  preach  the  opening  sermon, 
left  his  place  of  residence  on  his  way  to  the  city,  but 
was  obliged  by  indisposition  to  return.  The  consecra- 
tion of  Griswold  and  Hobart *  therefore,  whose  testi- 
monials had  been  duly  signed,  was  postponed  until 
the  week  after  the  adjournment,  when  the  two  Bish- 
ops proceeded  to  New  York  and  summoned  the  dis- 
abled Provoost  from  his  retirement  to  assist  them  in 
the  solemn  act. 2 

1  The  Rev.  Alexander  V.  Griswold  was  elected  Bishop  of  the  Eastern 
Diocese,  composed  of  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  New  Hampshire  and 
Vermont,  May  31,  1810,  and  the  Rev.  John  H.  Hobart,  D.  D.  was  elected 
Assistant  Bishop  of  New  York,  May  15,  1811,  —  Bishop  Moore  having 
been  stricken  by  partial  paralysis  and  rendered  incapable  of  active  duty. 
Though  last  elected  and  younger  than  Mr.  Griswold,  Dr.  Hobart  was  first 
consecrated.  Bishop  White,  the  presiding  bishop,  undoubtedly  observed  in 
this  case  the  rule  referred  to  in  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  written 
by  him  to  correct  "  a  mistake  "  which  had  appeared  in  the  Churchman's 
Magazine,  "  as  to  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Claggett." 

"  On  the  subject  of  precedency,  no  discourse  ever  took  place  between 
Bishop  Provoost  and  me.  From  what  I  know  of  myself,  and  from  what  I 
believe  of  him,  I  venture  to  pronounce  it  impossible  that  any  dissatisfaction 
should  have  arisen  on  that  ground.  As  he  is  my  senior  in  years,  I  accounted 
for  the  priority  of  my  name  in  the  instrument  of  consecration,  and  in  a 
communication  of  the  Archbishop  which  concerned  us  alike  from  the  cir- 
cumstance of  my  being  the  senior  Doctor  in  Divinity,  as  our  papers  must 
have  shown,  and  as  I  know  to  be  according  to  a  rule  which  governs  in 
England,  and  governed  among  our  clergy  in  America  before  the  Revolu- 
tion." —  MS.  Letter  to  Rev.  John  C.  Rudd,  July  18,  1815. 

2  "  The  author  left  home  under  the  hope  of  inducing  Bishop  Provoost  to 
go  on  to  New  Haven,  although  he  had  never  performed  any  ecclesiastical 
duty  since  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Moore  in  1801.  But  besides  Bishop 
Provoost's  being  under  the  effects  of  a  slight  stroke  of  the  paralytic  [paraly- 
sis], sustained  two  years  before,  he  was,  at  this  time,  only  beginning  to  re- 
cover from  the  jaundice.  He  found  himself  utterly  incompetent  to  the  tak- 
ing of  a  journey  ;  but  promised,  if  possible,  to  assist  in  a  consecration,  if  it 


70  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

By  this  time,  the  number  of  the  clergy  in  Connect- 
icut had  increased  to  thirty,  and  from  a  report  then 
made,  it  appeared  that  between  four  and  five  hundred 
families  had  been  added  to  the  Church  since  the  last 
General  Convention.  The  congregations  of  the  Dio- 
cese were  in  a  flourishing  condition,  several  new 
churches  had  been  built,  and  with  the  zeal  and  exer- 
tions of  the  clergy,  the  expectation  was  cherished  that 
the  power  as  well  as  the  form  of  godliness  would 
greatly  advance.  The  moral  support  which  the  effort 
to  secure  a  charter  had  gained  by  the  action  of  the 
General  Convention,  encouraged  the  clergy  to  per- 
severe, and  at  a  Convocation  held  in  February,  1812, 
it  was  resolved  that  a  petition  be  preferred  to  the 
next  Legislature  by  the  Bishop  and  clergy  of  the  Dio- 
cese of  Connecticut,  with  the  consent  and  approbation 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Episcopal  Academy 
—  praying  that  said  Academy  may  be  erected  into 
a  college.  Five  prominent  clergymen  were  appointed 
to  draft  the  petition  and  advocate  the  same  before 
the  General  Assembly,  but  their  movements  are  not 
recorded,  and  other  events  afterwards  came  in  to  stay 
entreaty  and  absorb  the  ecclesiastical  and  legislative 
sympathies. 

The  second  pastoral  letter  from  the  House  of 
Bishops,  issued  in  1811,  was  brief,   and   after  glancing 

should  be  held  in  the  city  of  New  York.  With  the  expectation  of  this,  Bishop 
Jarvis,  after  the  rising  of  the  Convention,  came  with  the  author  to  the  said 
city  ;  as  did  the  two  bishops  elect.  To  the  last  hour,  there  was  danger  of 
disappointment.  On  our  arrival,  a  day  also  having  been  publicly  notified 
for  the  consecration,  we  found  that  Bishop  Provoost  had  suffered  a  relapse 
during  our  absence.  But  finally,  he  found  himself  strong  enough  to  give 
his  attendance,  and  thus  the  business  was  happily  accomplished."  —  Bishop 
White's  Memoirs,  etc.,  p.  209. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  71 

at  topics  and  doctrines  formerly  considered,  it  called 
the  special  attention  of  the  clergy  to  their  duty  in  re- 
porting the  state  of  their  respective  cures ;  and  in 
preparing  and  presenting  young  persons  and  others 
for  the  holy  rite  of  Confirmation. 

As  the  Church  at  large  increased,  it  was  quite  im- 
portant to  know  where  it  was  the  strongest  and  where 
it  was  growing  most  steadily  and  rapidly.  The  ob- 
jects of  the  XLVth  Canon  contemplated  that  careful 
parish  registers  be  kept,  transcripts  of  which  were 
to  form  the  parochial  reports  at  every  annual  conven- 
tion ;  but  independently  of  the  canonical  requirement, 
<•'  the  keeping  of  these  records  "  said  the  bishops,  a  is 
occasionally  of  so  much  consequence  to  the  fortunes, 
and  in  some  instances  to  the  reputation  of  individuals, 
that  we  do  not  know  how  any  clergyman,  negligent 
in  this  particular,  can  answer  it  to  God  and  to  society." 

The  extent  of  their  dioceses,  their  parochial  en- 
gagements, and  the  necessity  of  travelling  in  stage- 
coaches and  private  conveyances,  rendered  it  impos- 
sible for  the  early  American  prelates  to  make  frequent 
visitations  and  administer  the  apostolic  rite  of  Con- 
firmation. The  first  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  (Bass), 
though  he  exercised  his  office  for  a  period  of  six 
years,  never  penetrated  to  the  distant  parishes  of  his 
charge  in  the  valley  of  the  Housatonic,  and  the  whole 
body  of  communicants  in  that  region  was  therefore 
left  to  welcome  the  feet  of  his  saintly  successor,  and 
to  receive  from  him  the  hand  of  blessing  and  hear 
the  prayer  to  God  for  their  future  growth  in  grace. 
The  original  Canon,  providing  for  an  accurate  view 
of  the  state  of  the  Church,  did  not  require  the  minis- 
ter to  include  in  his  parochial  report  the  number  of 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

confirmations,  but  the  connecting  link  between  Bap- 
tism and  the  Lord's  Supper  was  not  on  this  account  to 
be  forgotten.  "  It  has  not  been  unobserved  by  us," 
is  the  language  of  the  Pastoral,  "how  zealous  and 
how  successful  some  of  the  clergy  have  been  in  aid- 
ing our  efforts  in  this  branch  of  the  Episcopacy ; 
and  even  in  soliciting  our  visits  to  their  respective 
churches,  with  a  view  to  it.  And  if  the  same  cannot 
be  affirmed  of  all  our  reverend  brethren,  we  are  aware 
that,  in  some  instances,  it  may  have  been  less  owing 
to  indifference  and  neglect,  than  to  the  difficulty  of 
introducing  a  practice  which,  until  within  these  few 
years,  was  unknown  in  this  country,  however  in  it- 
self coeval  with  our  holy  religion." 

In  1808,  Bishop  Jarvis  stated  that  he  had  visited 
six  parishes  of  his  Diocese,  confirming  three  hun- 
dred and  eighty-six  persons,  and  in  1809-10  he  vis- 
ited eight  parishes  and  confirmed  four  hundred  and 
thirty-seven.  In  1811,  he  confirmed,  in  three  parishes, 
two  hundred  and  eighty-four*  persons ;  and  the  next 
year,  which  embraced  the  last  of  his  reported  visita- 
tions, he  administered  the  rite  in  five  parishes  to  one 
hundred  and  eighty.  The  whole  number  on  record 
as  confirmed  by  him  during  his  Episcopate  is  three 
thousand  and  sixty-eight,  an  average  of  about  two 
hundred  a  year  from  the  date  of  his  consecration. 
It  shows  that  the  clergy  of  Connecticut  were  not  un- 
mindful of  their  responsibilities  in  this  respect,  and 
only  needed  a  more  active  head  to  quicken  their  zeal 
and  stir  the  hearts  of  the  laity. 

The  Annual  Convention  which  met  at  New  Haven 
in  1808,  composed  of  fifteen  clergymen  and  seven- 
teen laymen,  undertook  to  ascertain  the  bounds  of 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  73 

the  several  cures  in  the  Diocese,  partly  with  a  view  of 
providing  ministrations  of  some  kind  for  all  the  places 
where  parishes  had  been  organized,  and  partly  to  give 
more  permanence  and  regularity  to  the  support  of  the 
rectors.  According  to  the  arrangement  then  adopted, 
not  one  of  these  rectors  had  a  single  charge,  and 
many  of  them  were  required  to  look  after  the  scat- 
tered families  of  the  Church  in  towns  remote  from 
their  residences.  There  were  seventy-three  parishes 
or  localities  in  the  Diocese  which  called  for  Episcopal 
services,  and  only  twenty-six  clergymen  to  supply 
them ;  so  that  several  of  the  feebler  churches  were 
almost  constantly  vacant.  Much  was  done  to  keep 
them  alive  by  lay-reading  and  by  the  circulation  of 
instructive  books  and  pamphlets ;  and  a  voluntary 
Society,  called  a  "  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Chris- 
tian Knowledge,"  of  which  more  will  be  said  hereafter, 
was  formed  in  New  Haven  on  the  last  day  of  October, 
1808,  to  publish  and  circulate,  at  reduced  prices,  such 
useful  religious  works  as  would  best  conduce  to  the 
advancement  of  piety  and  Christian  knowledge.  From 
the  lack  of  properly  authorized  ministers  to  officiate 
in  the  vacant  churches,  sprung  a  class  of  "  preaching 
candidates,"  whom  Bishop  Jarvis  thus  reproved  in  his 
address  to  the  Annual  Convention  of  1807 :  — 

"  An  intention  to  enter  into  the  priesthood  is  a  self- 
offering,  and  it  is  required  that  a  declaration  of  this 
intention  be  made  one  year  previous  to  ordination. 
The  rule  supposes  that  the  name  of  the  person  is  put 
on  record,  and  that  he  is  afterwards  considered  as  a 
candidate.  Hence  a  preposterous  idea  seems  to  have 
been  adopted,  that  the  candidate  is  authorized  to  of- 
ficiate in  reading  the  prayers  of  the  Church  and  in 


74  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

preaching.  In  consequence  of  this  idea,  the  people, 
either  through  ignorance  of  the  principles  of  their  own 
Church,  or  from  a  desire  of  bearing  a  nearer  affinity 
to  the  dissenters,  have  grafted  into  our  clerical  charac- 
ter a  new  grade,  —  I  mean  that  of  licensed  preachers, 
—  and  this  has  been  done  without  their  pretending 
even  to  the  shadow  of  a  license,  unless  it  be  the  be- 
fore-mentioned record.  If  the  vacant  congregations 
would  be  contented  to  have  a  lay-reader,  until  they 
could  be  supplied  with  a  priest,  and  if,  provided  no 
one  among  them  should  be  proper  or  willing  to  per- 
form the  office,  they  would  procure  a  candidate  to 
lead  them  in  the  prayers  and  read  a  sermon  to  them, 
no  particular  objections  would  arise.  But  on  the  sole 
ground  of  being  a  candidate,  a  circumstance  which 
has  no  connection  with  preaching  or  with  any  clerical 
services  in  the  devotions  of  the  Church,  for  him  to 
undertake  to  preach,  and  for  the  people  to  do  any- 
thing to  promote  it,  is  in  both  a  palpable  contradic- 
tion to  the  principles  of  the  Church.  On  the  part  of 
the  parishioners,  it  is  entirely  absurd ;  on  that  of  the 
candidate,  it  is  a  direct  bar  against  his  admission  into 
the  priesthood." 

The  union  of  parishes  in  cures  was  not  unalterably 
fixed  by  the  Convention.  The  whole  scheme  was 
but  recommendatory,  and  nothing  was  done  which 
might  not  be  changed  by  a  simple  vote  of  the  same 
body.  Disputes  between  churches  respecting  their 
parish  lines,  or  difficulties  between  a  rector  and  a 
portion  of  his  cure,  were  sometimes  best  settled  by 
separating  the  parts  which  had  been  previously 
united  for  the  sake  of  convenience  and  strength.  Some 
of  the   cures   were  long  vacant,  and  these  furnished 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  75 

temptations  to  the  clergy  to  absent  themselves  occa- 
sionally from  their  own  flocks,  with  results  which,  in 
general,  were  not  salutary.  "  It  may  be  a  subject  de- 
serving your  attention,"  said  the  Bishop, *  "  whether  a 
real  injury  is  not  done  to  the  Church  by  clergymen 
leaving  the  churches  particularly  assigned  to  their 
charge,  and  officiating  too  frequently  in  those  vacant 
churches  wThich  might,  and  if  so,  ought,  to  have  a 
clergyman  settled  among  them :  whether  such  prac- 
tice be  not  disorderly,  and  does  not  merit  such  aid  as 
the  Convention  may  give  to  the  Bishop,  to  correct 
the  disorder,  as  having  a  tendency  to  hurt  their  own 
churches,  and  to  cherish  a  spirit  of  indifference  and 
lukewarmness  among  those  vacant  churches  towards 
the  Liturgy  and  Offices,  and  the  general  interest  and 
prosperity  of  the  Church.  "  As  the  ranks  of  the  min- 
istry were  increased  and  younger  men  appeared  to 
enter  with  fresh  zeal  upon  self-denying  labors,  a  few 
of  the  weak  parishes  rose  up  with  resolute  purpose  to 
provide  for  more  frequent  clerical  services ;  but  the 
evil  here  complained  of  still  continued,  and  the  his- 
tory of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  for  several  years 
presented  a  picture  with  the  same  dark  and  sombre 
shades. 

1  Address  to  Convention,  1S12. 


76  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER   VI. 

STATISTICS  OF  THE  PARISHES;  SUPPORT  OF  THE  EPISCOPATE; 
DEATH  OF  DR.  HUBBARD;  LIST  OF  ORDINATIONS;  AND  DEATH 
OF  BISHOP  JARVIS. 

A.  D.  1811-1813. 

Ten  presbyters  and  thirteen  laymen  attended 
the  Annual  Convention  which  met  at  Middletown  in 
1811.  The  Bishop  was  absent,  as  he  had  been  also 
from  the  Special  Convention  held  at  Cheshire  on  the 
3d  day  of  the  preceding  October ;  and  out  of  all 
the  rectors  in  the  diocese,  four  only  —  Ashbel  and 
David  Baldwin,  Elijah  G.  Plumb,  and  Philo  Shelton 
—  reported  the  state  of  the  nine  parishes  with  which 
they  were  severally  connected.  From  such  partial 
and  imperfect  statistics,  no  fair  representation  of  the 
Church  could  be  gathered,  and  the  chief  advantage  of 
publishing  them  must  have  been  to  draw  attention  to 
the  matter  and  show  that  there  was  a  Canon  of  the 
General  Convention  which  almost  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy  habitually  neglected.  It  is  to  be  lamented 
that  more  care  in  this  respect  was  not  observed  at 
that  early  day.  Many,  who  were  no  doubt  zealous 
and  self-sacrificing  in  their  work,  appear  to  have  kept 
their  records  for  personal  convenience  and  to  have 
felt  themselves  to  be  under  no  obligation  to  obey  the 
Canon,  and  make  annual  parochial  reports.  Loose 
sheets  of  paper   and   the   blank  leaves  of  a  Prayer- 


IN"   CONNECTICUT.  77 

book  were  sometimes  used  for  entries  of  official  acts, 
instead  of  a  parish  register,  which  could  be  easily  pre- 
served and  conveniently  consulted.  Whether  the 
admonition  of  the  pastoral  letter  from  the  House  of 
Bishops,  referred  to  in  the  previous  chapter,  had  any 
effect  or  not,  the  Notitice  Parochiales  for  the  next 
year  increased  from  nine  to  nineteen,  and  ever  since 
that  time  there  has  been  in  Connecticut  a  general 
compliance  with  the  requirements  of  the  Canon. 
The  returns  have  not,  by  any  means,  been  complete, 
but  they  have  been  full  enough  to  convey  some  def- 
inite idea  of  the  condition  and  growth  of  the  Church 
in  successive  periods  of  her  history. 

The  infirmities  of  Bishop  Jarvis  were  now  very 
great,  and  his  constitution,  originally  strong,  was 
shaken  by  the  inroads  of  the  disease  from  which  he 
had  so  long  suffered.  To  himself  as  well  as  to  others 
the  close  of  his  stewardship  appeared  not  far  distant. 

On  the  19th  day  of  February,  1812,  he  met  his 
clersrv  in  Convocation  at  New  Haven,  when  a  dozen 
were  present,  and  delivered  an  "  affectionate  address," 
in  which  he  took  occasion  to  refer  to  the  unhappy  dif- 
ficulties then  existing  in  the  Diocese  of  New  York. 
These  difficulties  grew  out  of  the  election  and  con- 
secration of  Dr.  Hobart  to  the  Episcopate.  One  of 
his  associates  in  the  rectorship  of  Trinity  Church, — 
the  Rev.  Cave  Jones,  a  native  of  New  York  City,  — 
while  the  election  was  yet  pending,  had  published  an 
ill-judged  pamphlet  reflecting  upon  his  fitness  for  that 
high  office,  and  with  an  imagination  perturbed  by 
jealousy,  had  cited,  from  his  intercourse  with  him, 
examples  of  hasty  temper  and  petty  contention  which 
a  better  mind  would  have  buried  in  oblivion.     A  long 


78  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

personal  controversy  followed  and  opened  "  the  scene 
of  Bishop  Hobart's  apostolic  labors  with  a  picture 
foreign  to  their  holy  and  peaceful  spirit."  It  was  a 
sad  controversy,  for  while  these  dissensions  among 
the  shepherds  of  the  flock  were  raised,  the  wolf  of 
the  world  was  looking  with  malignant  joy  over  the 
pales  of  the  fold  and  preparing  to  make  a  fatal  entry. 
Connecticut  was  incidentally  mentioned  in  this  cleri- 
cal quarrel.  A  few  of  her  leading  presbyters,  a  short 
time  before,  had  interchanged  thoughts  upon  the  plan 
of  choosing  an  assistant  bishop,  and  had  gone  so  far 
as  to  communicate  their  views  to  an  old  and  fast 
friend  of  the  Diocese  (Dr.  Bowden),  and  ask  him  if, 
under  certain  conditions,  he  would  consent  to  accept 
the  office.  An  unwarrantable  use  was  made  of  this 
informal  movement  in  the  pamphlet  of  Mr.  Jones, 
and  the  peace  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  was 
touched  by  the  disturbance  of  the  neighboring  Dio- 
cese. Very  properly,  therefore,  did  Bishop  Jarvis 
bring  the  matter  before  his  clergy,  from  whom  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  advise  with  their  brethren 
of  New  York  and  take  such  "  prudential  measures  "  to 
remove  the  existing  difficulties  as,  by  the  blessing  of 
God,  might  be  in  their  power.  It  was  not  officious 
meddling  in  them  to  wish  that  the  parties  involved 
might  correct  their  misunderstandings,  sacrifice  their 
worldly  resentments,  if  they  had  any,  at  the  foot  of 
their  Master's  cross,  and  henceforth  proceed,  hand  in 
hand,  as  champions  of  the  faith,  to  build  up  the  king- 
dom whose  sublime  watchword  was  "  Glory  to  God  in 
the  highest,  and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  towards 
men." 

The  last  occasion  on  which  Bishop  Jarvis  presided 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  79 

in  the  Convention  of  the  Diocese  was  in  1812,  and  he 
opened  his  annual  address  then  with  touching  allus- 
ions to  his  lengthened  age  as  compared  with  that  of 
his  more  vigorous  and  healthy  predecessor.  His  ex- 
perience in  the  Episcopate  and  the  situation  of  the 
Church  made  him  anxious  for  the  future,  and  his 
thousjits  were  turned  to  the  continuance  of  the  im- 
portant  office  which  he  filled  and  to  the  means  and 
style  of  its  support.  He  would  not  have  it  depen- 
dent upon  a  parish;  and  no  parish  in  the  Diocese 
could  afford  an  adequate  living  for  a  bishop  and  pro- 
vide, at  the  same  time,  for  a  supply  of  services  while 
he  was  absent  on  his  Episcopal  visitations.  "  But," 
said  he,  "  if  we  had  a  church  sufficiently  able  to  do  it, 
would  it  be  desirable  ?  Would  it  be  for  the  best  to 
have  the  office  so  attached  to  any  one  church  as  to 
give  that  church  a  control  over  the  choice  of  a  bish- 
op. When  our  first  Bishop,  who,  after  much  expense 
and  trouble,  obtained  and  introduced  the  office  into 
the  country,  took  his  residence  amongst  us,  the  senti- 
ment generally  pervaded  the  body  of  the  Church  in 
the  State,  that  it  was  necessary  and  their  duty  to 
make  some  provision  for  his  living  among  us.  The 
churches  accordingly,  by  their  delegates,  repeatedly 
met  on  that  business.  A  contribution  according  to  a 
certain  ratio,  in  form  of  a  tax,  was  agreed  upon,  and 
recommended  to  all  their  respective  churches.  The 
measure  thus  attempted,  being  left  upon  so  general  a 
footing,  probably  from  that  very  circumstance,  proved 
inefficient;  and  all  that  my  worthy  predecessor  re- 
ceived from  the  Diocese  I  believe  did  not  amount  to 
the  interest  of  the  money  he  expended  of  his  own 
property  to  accomplish  for  us  the  object  of  our  wishes. 


80  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

This  was  succeeded  by  an  effort  to  procure  from  the 
Legislature  an  act  incorporating  a  board  of  trustees 
for  the  establishment  of  a  fund.  After  some  time 
and  much  exertion  the  act  was  obtained.  And,  as  if 
nothing  more  was  intended  by  the  zeal  that  was 
shown  to  procure  it,  there  it  rested.  The  attention 
that  has  since  been  given  to  it,  and  what  has  been 
done  to  carry  into  effect  the  purpose  expressed  in  the 
act,  you  all  know.  As  I  mean  only  to  remind  you  of 
what  has  passed,  with  the  feeling  hope  of  exciting 
more  attention  for  the  future  to  a  matter  of  such 
weighty  concern,  I  will  barely  request  you  to  advert 
to  several  successive  resolves  passed  in  different  con- 
ventions." 

He  then  proceeds  to  recite  these  resolves  and  del- 
icately to  intimate  that  they  contemplated  other  and 
intermediate  provision  for  the  Bishop,  until  that  pro- 
vision should  be  acquired  by  the  operation  of  the 
proposed  fund.  Too  modest  to  set  up  any  claim  for 
himself,  he  could  not  plead  for  better  care  of  his  suc- 
cessors without  stating  the  facts  and  recalling  the 
measures  of  the  past.     He  added,  moreover :  — 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  if  you  will  examine  what  stands 
upon  the  journals,  successively  from  the  year  1798, 
and  compare  the  several  proceedings,  with  the  receipts 
of  moneys  from  the  churches  of  the  Diocese,  subject 
to  your  inspection,  if  desired,  you  will  see  with  what 
languor  the  support  of  the  Bishop  has  hitherto  been 
regarded.  You  will  see  with  how  much  reason  they 
who  feel  an  unfeigned  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
Church  are  concerned  for  the  unpleasant  prospect  that 
the  Episcopate  in  this  Diocese  must  fail,  unless  some 
more  energetic  measures  are  pursued  to  prevent  it. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  81 

"  My  mind  would  have  been  more  highly  gratified 
to  have  had  this  subject  brought  forward  to  your 
particular  notice  at  this  time,  by  some  member  of  the 
house ;  and  however  sentiments  of  delicacy  under  a 
different  situation  might  have  laid  me  under  some 
restraint  from  doing  it  myself,  yet  I  perceived  that 
restraint  lessened  by  the  consideration  that  I  can,  at 
my  advanced  period  of  life,  indulge  no  rational  pros- 
pect of  any  great  length  of  days  to  come ;  and  there- 
fore must  be  less  personally  affected  by  the  future 
events  which  may  await  the  Church  than  probably 
will  be  the  case  with  most,  perhaps  all  of  you,  my 
brethren,  who  are  now  present.  Little,  indeed,  have 
been  the  aids  afforded  by  the  Church  towards  the 
support  of  the  office,  since  we  have  had  the  privilege 
of  enjoying  it.  From  this,  if  duly  considered  as  from 
a  visible  cause,  we  may  infer  the  want  of  that  salu- 
tary influence  essential  to  its  respectability  and  to  the 
powers  of  doing  good,  annexed  to  the  office  in  its 
original  institution. 

"When  we  were  subjected  to  the  many  difficulties 
attendant  on  a  hazardous  and  expensive  voyage  to 
England,  to  obtain  our  priesthood,  it  was  then 
viewed  in  that  state  of  deprivation,  as  a  matter  which 
would  have  been  of  incalculable  privilege,  to  have  a 
resident  bishop  among  us.  And,  while  laboring  un- 
der the  disadvantages,  an  honorable  provision  for  his 
maintenance  would  have  been  considered  as  a  real 
gain  in  the  article  of  expense." 

The  Convention  referred  the  address  to  a  com- 
mittee, and  some  earnest  steps  were  immediately 
taken  to  provide  in  future  such  a  salary  as  seemed  in- 
dispensably requisite  to  support  the  Episcopal  dignity 


82  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

in  the  Diocese.  The  general  poverty  of  the  Church 
was  a  great  bar  to  any  schemes  for  creating  a  respec- 
table endowment,  and  the  infrequency  of  the  Bishop's 
visitations  had  hitherto  prevented  him  from  exciting 
much  interest  among  the  laity  in  the  matter  of  his 
personal  support.  The  parishes,  especially  those 
most  remote  from  his  residence,  complained  of  his 
neglects ;  but  he  may  have  justly  pleaded  in  excuse 
ill-health  and  the  lack  of  sufficient  provision  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  journeying.  In  mercy  and  considera- 
tion to  him,  the  clergy  acquiesced  in  the  limited  exer- 
cise of  his  public  duty,  and  were  generally  content,  in 
the  latest  years  of  his  life,  with  such  offices  as  could 
not  be  omitted  without  detriment  to  the  essential  in- 
terests of  the  Church.  With  a  tremulous  voice  and 
a  very  deliberate  enunciation,  —  the  effect  perhaps  of 
his  painful  asthma,  —  he  became  somewhat  wearisome 
as  a  preacher ;  and  for  a  considerable  time  before  his 
death,  he  seldom  made  his  appearance  in  the  pulpit. 

National  events  at  this  period  were  beginning  to 
assume  a  threatening  aspect  and  to  absorb  the  popu- 
lar attention.  The  old  sores  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  were  not  all  healed,  and  the 
right  of  searching  American  vessels,  claimed  by  the 
government  of  the  mother  country,  and  of  impressing 
from  them  British  seamen,  opened  these  sores  afresh 
and  brought  on  the  fever  of  resistance  to  foreign  ag- 
gression. In  June,  1812,  the  United  States  declared 
war  against  Great  Britain,  and  it  was  prosecuted  with 
various  success  for  nearly  three  years,  during  which 
the  Americans  attempted  in  vain  the  conquest  of 
Canada,  and  the  British  squadrons  were  repulsed  in 
several   attacks   upon    the   principal  maritime  cities. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  83 

The  people  of  the  New  England  States  were,  for  the 
most  part,  opposed  to  the  measures  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  being  destitute  of  the  national  protection 
and  liable  to  the  ravages  of  the  enemy,  they  were  in 
great  alarm  and  dread.  Their  fears  were  not  a  little 
increased  by  the  course  of  their  friends  in  Congress. 
Thirty-four  members  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, including  the  whole  Connecticut  delegation, 
addressed  their  constituents  in  the  outset  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  war  with  Great  Britain,  and,  among  other 
things,  said,  "  It  would  be  some  relief  to  our  anxiety, 
if  amends  were  likely  to  be  made  for  the  weakness 
and  wildness  of  the  project,  by  the  prudence  of  the 
preparation.  But  in  no  aspect  of  this  anomalous  af- 
fair can  we  trace  the  great  and  distinctive  properties 
of  wisdom.  There  is  seen  a  headlong  rushing  into 
difficulties,  with  little  calculation  about  the  means, 
and  little  concern  about  the  consequences.  With  a 
navy  comparatively  nominal,  we  are  about  to  enter 
into  the  lists  against  the  greatest  marine  on  the 
globe.  With  a  commerce  unprotected  and  spread 
over  every  ocean,  we  propose  to  make  profit  by  pri- 
vateering, and  for  this,  endanger  the  wealth  of  which 
we  are  the  honest  proprietors."  But  when  the  war, 
blazing  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  had 
reached  Connecticut,  she  was  ready  to  rise  in  her 
own  defence,  and  the  heroic  spirit  with  which  the  in- 
habitants of  Stonington  repelled,  at  a  moment's  warn- 
ing, the  invasion  of  her  eastern  borders,  has  been  at 
once  the  admiration  of  the  historian  and  of  the  whole 
country. 

Religion  never  thrives  amid  the  clashing  of  hostile 
swords,  and  the  tread  of  opposing  armies.    Though  the 


84  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Episcopal  Church  stood  in  no  such  odious  or  suspicious 
relations  to  the  war  of  1812  as  to  the  Revolutionary 
conflict,  yet,  in  common  with  other  communions,  she 
suffered  from  its  operation  and  effects.  In  Connecti- 
cut, she  not  only  felt  the  weight  of  the  burdens  which 
war  always  brings,  but  the  consequences  of  the 
great  commercial  embarrassments  which  followed  the 
conclusion  of  a  treaty  of  peace.  Nevertheless,  as  will 
be  shown  hereafter,  some  noble  enterprises  for  her 
advancement  were  undertaken  at  this  season,  and  pros- 
ecuted to  a  successful  issue. 

For  fourteen  years  but  two  of  the  clergy  of  the 
Diocese  had  died  —  one,  the  venerable  Dr.  Learning, 
early  in  the  autumn  of  1804,  and  the  other,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Todd  of  Huntington,  in  midsummer,  1809.  The 
infirmities  of  age  had  been  creeping  upon  Dr.  Hub- 
bard ;  and  the  people  of  his  parish,  who  began  pre- 
vious to  Easter,  1811,  to  confer  together  on  the  subject 
of  building  a  new  church,  took  an  equally  important 
step  that  same  year  in  procuring  and  settling  a  per- 
manent assistant.  The  Rev.  Henry  Whitlock,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Williams  College,  who  had  been  seven  years  in 
charge  of  the  parish  at  Norwalk,  was  chosen ;  and 
accepted  the  position  with  an  annual  salary  of  eight 
hundred  dollars.  He  was  in  the  prime  of  life  and  had 
already  won  the  reputation  of  an  earnest,  eloquent,  and 
faithful  clergyman.  The  neatness  and  care  with  which 
he  noted  his  official  acts  in  the  parish  register  cast 
quite  into  the  shade  the  slovenly  record  of  his  senior 
associate,  kept,  as  a  tradesman  keeps  his  journal,  with 
all  the  different  entries  running  together  and  follow- 
ing each  other  in  the  order  of  their  dates. 

Events  showed  that  provision  for  an  assistant  to  the 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  85 

Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  was  not  pre- 
mature. In  fifteen  months  from  the  time  of  the  Insti- 
tution of  Mr.  Whitlock  into  his  office,  the  declining 
health  and  strength  of  Dr.  Hubbard  terminated  in 
death  —  and  he  was  buried  on  the  9th  of  December, 
1812,  with  the  lamentations  of  a  people  among  whom, 
for  forty-five  years,  he  had  gone  in  and  out  to  admin- 
ister comfort  and  impart  instruction.  His  assistant, 
now,  by  the  terms  of  his  settlement,  succeeding  to  the 
rectorship,  delivered  a  discourse  at  the  funeral  which 
was  printed  by  request  of  the  vestry,  and  extensively 
distributed  in  the  parish  and  among  the  friends  of  the 
author.  It  may  be  regarded  as  a  fair  specimen  of  his 
beautiful  style  of  sermonizing ;  and  the  allusions  to 
himself  and  his  flock  in  it  are  as  delicate  as  the  por- 
traiture of  the  departed  servant  of  the  Lord  is  faithful. 
"  I  will  not  believe, "  said  he,  "  that  the  services 
and  example  of  your  venerable  Rector  have  been 
ineffectual,  or  will  soon  cease  to  have  influence. 
Though  dead  he  yet  speaketh  and  will  be  regarded. 
Long  may  his  doctrine,  his  character,  his  courtesy, 
his  devotion,  his  zeal  for  the  Church  and  her  holy 
services,  abide  in  you,  and  be  exhibited  in  your 
lives.  For  you  he  prayed,  for  you  he  labored,  for  you 
he  exhausted  his  life.  Through  the  whole  course  of 
his  late  sickness,  the  prosperity  of  this  church  was  his 
favorite  subject  of  conversation.  And  it  was  a  source 
of  peculiar  satisfaction  to  him,  that  in  proportion  to 
the  decline  of  his  health  and  usefulness,  the  affection 
of  his  people  was  increased  and  was  manifested  in  the 
most  substantial  manner,  not  only  by  continuing  his 
customary  maintenance  but  by  procuring  an  assistant; 
and  that,  instead  of  beino;  cast  off  as  a  burthen,  he  has 


86  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

received  from  you  every  token  of  respect,  every  ten- 
der assiduity,  which  could  alleviate  his  infirmities, 
soothe  his  pains,  and  cheer  the  evening  of  his  life. 
With  this  truly  honorable  and  Christian  treatment,  his 
heart  was  full  —  it  overflowed.  My  dear  friends,  in 
this  season  of  affliction  and  of  mourning  for  one  of  the 
best  of  ministers,  may  suitable  impressions  sink  deep 
into  your  hearts,  sanctify  your  sorrows,  confirm  your 
faith,  and  invigorate  your  virtue. 

"  As  for  me,  I  need  not  tell  you  my  grief;  I  will 
spread  it  before  Him,  who  hath  taken  away  my  head, 
my  father,  and  my  friend. 

"When  Elijah  ascended  into  heaven,  and  his  mantle 
fell  from  him,  it  was  taken  up  by  Elisha,  who  had  wit- 
nessed his  ascent :  from  which  time  it  was  said,  '  the 
spirit  of  Elijah  cloth  rest  on  Elisha.'  So  far  as  pur  de- 
parted father  had  the  temper  of  a  Christian  minister, 
may  his  spirit  be  found  to  rest  on  his  successor ! 
Most  eagerly  would  I  take  up  his  mantle,  put  on  his 
virtues,  wear  his  character,  and  like  him,  enjoy  your 
affection.  Brethren,  I  beseech  you,  pray  for  me,  that, 
stirring  up  the  gift  that  is  in  me,  I  may  attain  to  the 
maturity  of  the  pastoral  character,  discharge  with 
fidelity  the  arduous  duties  of  my  holy  office,  and  be 
an  instrument  of  bringing  many  sons  to  glory." 1 

Two  weeks  after  the  death  of  Dr.  Hubbard,  ere  the 
days  of  mourning  were  ended,  Bishop  Jarvis  held  an 
ordination  in  Trinity  Church  and  admitted  to  the 
priesthood  Daniel  McDonald  and  Frederick  Hol- 
comb.  These  were  the  last  names  which  he  affixed  to 
his  list  of  ordinations,  numbering  in  all  sixty-one  — 
thirty-three  deacons  and  twenty-eight  priests.     Bishop 

1  Sermon,  pp.  18-19. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  87 

Seabury,  who  exercised  his  Episcopate  for  a  period  of 
little  more  than  eleven  years,  ordained  ninety-three, 
—  forty-nine  deacons,  and  forty-four  priests  — but  can- 
didates from  other  sections  of  the  country  came  to 
him  before  White  and  Provoost  were  consecrated  to 
the  apostolic  office.  Bishop  Jarvis,  though  he  had 
entered  the  sixteenth  year  of  his  consecration,  had 
seldom  performed  any  services  for  the  Church  beyond 
the  limits  of  his  own  Episcopal  charge.  As  Frederick 
Holcomb  was  the  last  to  receive  from  him  the  priestly 
office,  so  he  is  the  last  surviving  1  link  in  the  chain  of 
ordinations  that  unites  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  with 
the  second  Bishop  of  Connecticut. 

It  was  not  many  months  before  the  funeral  solem- 
nities of  the  Bishop  followed  those  of  his  old  friend 
and  valued  companion,  Dr.  Hubbard.  Together  they 
went  forth  on  the  voyage  to  England  for  Holy  Orders ; 
together  they  had  walked  in  the  house  of  God  as 
brothers,  and  in  death  they  were  scarcely  divided.  On 
the  3d  of  May,  1813,  after  a  short  and  severe  illness, 
Bishop  Jarvis  died  at  his  residence  in  New  Haven, 
just  at  the  completion  of  his  seventy-fourth  year. 
He  was  buried  in  the  public  cemetery  then  recent- 
ly opened ;  but  upon  the  erection  of  the  present 
Trinity  Church  in  that  city,  his  remains  were  disin- 
terred and  deposited  beneath  the  chancel  of  this  edifice, 
which  he  had  hoped  to  see  erected.2  His  son  and  only 
surviving  child,  —  the  Rev.  Samuel  F.  Jarvis,  —  whom 
he  advanced  to  the  priesthood  about  two  years  be- 
fore his  death,  was  permitted  to  honor  his  memory 

1  March,  1868. 

2  "  Hujusce  templi,  quod,  ut  exstructum  adspiceret 

Eheu  non  oculis  inortalibus,  rnagnopere  sperabat."  —  Inscription. 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

by  placing  over  his  dust  a  mural  monument  of  chaste 
design  and  exquisite  workmanship,  with  a  Latin  in- 
scription, reciting  his  ecclesiastical  dignity  and  posi- 
tion, and  his  own  filial  and  affectionate  sorrow. 

Bishop  Jarvis  was  an  admirer  of  the  old  school  of 
divines,  and  his  manners  were  formed  after  the  type  of 
an  English  gentleman  of  the  last  century.  Those  who 
knew  him  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life  speak  of  him 
as  preserving  great  dignity  of  deportment,  gravity  of 
speech,  and  professional  decorum.  A  profusion  of 
white  locks  covered  his  head,  which  resembled  some- 
what an  old-fashioned  wig,  and  added  much  to  the 
venerableness  of  his  appearance.  He  had  a  capacious 
mind,  a  correct  taste,  and  great  sensibility  of  heart. 
He  watched  with  a  good  degree  of  jealous  care  the 
dignity  and  prerogatives  of  the  Episcopal  office,  and  at 
times  was  rather  arbitrary  and  unyielding  in  the  pur- 
suit of  what  he  conceived  to  be  the  true  line  of  his 
duty.  Thoroughly  versed  in  the  history  of  the 
Church,  her  constitution  and  government,  her  doc- 
trines and  Liturgy,  he  was  so  far  forth  fitted  to  be  a 
wise  counsellor  and  guide ;  and  his  few  published 
writings  bear  marks  not  only  of  his  opposition  to 
needless  innovations,  but  of  his  undeviating  advocacy 
of  apostolic  order  and  primitive  usage.  He  rigidly 
adhered  to  rubrics,  and  had  no  patience  with  those  who 
would  shorten  the  Liturgy  for  the  sake  of  the  sermon.1 

1  The  gentlest  rebukes  are  frequently  the  most  effective.  During  his 
residence  in  New  Haven,  a  young  clergyman  from  the  South  spent  a  Sun- 
day with  him,  and  was  engaged  to  officiate  in  the  morning.  On  their  way 
to  the  church,  he  whispered  in  the  ear  of  the  Bishop  that  he  had  rather  a 
long  sermon,  and  with  his  permission,  he  would  like  to  omit  the  ante-Com- 
munion service.  The  Bishop  waited  for  a  moment  and  then  laying  his  hand 
upon  his  young  friend,  said,  —  "  My  dear  Sir,  if  you  have  anything  better 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  89 

It  has  been  seen  that  he  had  some  serious  troubles 
to  contend  with  in  the  matter  of  discipline,  particu- 
larly in  the  case  of  Ammi  Rogers,  and  it  added  sharp- 
ness to  his  trial  that  all  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  did 
not  approve  of  his  policy  in  that  unhappy  affair.  He 
was  slow  to  form  conclusions  and  not  very  quick  to 
act,  but  inflexible  when  he  had  taken  his  ground. 
He  magnified  points  of  minor  importance,  and  some- 
times allowed  them  to  stand  in  his  way,  when,  to  the 
view  of  others,  he  seemed  to  be  forgetting  the  real 
welfare  of  the  Church.  He  would  postpone  the  ordi- 
nation of  candidates  for  slight  reasons,  and  he  was  so 
nice  about  their  dress  that  occasionally  when  they  ap- 
peared before  him  in  unsuitable  apparel,  he  would 
supply  from  his  own  wardrobe  what,  in  his  judgment, 
Was  necessary  to  present  them  "  decently  habited." 
He  had  a  tenacious  memory  and  a  large  fund  of  in- 
formation, and  towards  the  close  of  his  life  he  re- 
peated anecdotes  and  sketches  of  personal  history 
with  such  minuteness  of  detail  as  to  be  tedious  to  his 
listeners.  The  art  of  brevity  in  narration  was  not 
among  his  attainments. 

The  family  of  his  predecessor  had  been  left  "  in  all 
temporal  things  unprovided  for,"  but  Bishop  Jarvis 
never  suffered  from  "  the  chill  hand  of  want  and  pe- 
cuniary distress."  Though  the  Diocese  had  done  too 
little  for  his  support,  Providence  had  blessed  him 
with  a  competency ;  and  his  son  had  inherited  a 
handsome  property  through  his  mother,  who  was  a 
niece  of  the  wife  of  Rev.  Dr.  Learning.     Not  one  of 

than  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the  Epistle  and  Gospel  for  the  day,  by 
all  means  omit  the  service,  but  if  not,  hold  fast  the  form  of  sound  words." 
It  is  needless  to  add  that  there  was  no  omission  of  the  service. 
12 


90  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

his  clergy  could  lay  any  claim  to  so  large  a  private 
fortune.  In  view  of  his  cup  and  of  the  portion  of  his 
inheritance,  the  Bishop  might  have  said  with  the 
Psalmist :  u  Surely  goodness  and  mercy  shall  follow 
me  all  the  days  of  my  life ;  and  I  will  dwell  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord  forever." 1 

1  Psalm  xxiii.  6. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  91 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ANNUAL    CONVENTION    AT    STRATFORD  ;    STYLE    OF    PREACHING  ; 
REV.  JOHN  KEWLEY  ;  AND  PERVERSIONS  TO  ROME. 

A.     D.     1813-1814. 

A  month  only  intervened  between  the  death  of 
Bishop  Jarvis  and  the  meeting  of  the  Annual  Con- 
vention at  Stratford.  The  clergy  and  laity  on  that 
occasion  were  equally  divided,  —  twenty-nine  of  each 
order  being  present,  —  and  the  Rev.  Tillotson  Bronson 
delivered  a  sermon  in  which  he  set  forth  u  the  divine 
institution  and  perpetuity  of  the  Christian  priest- 
hood," and  made  appropriate  allusions  to  the  bereave- 
ment of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  and  the  character 
of  her  late  Diocesan.  The  sermon  was  asked  for 
publication  and  printed.  It  opened  thus  :  "  In  the 
course  of  Divine  Providence,  that  portion  of  the 
Church  here  assembled  in  Convention,  has  lately 
been  deprived  of  its  visible  head.  Our  late  venerable 
Diocesan  has  received  that  summons  which  all  must 
obey,  and  is  gone  from  this  to  the  world  of  spirits. 
His  sacred  office  is  vacant.  He  will  no  more  preside 
in  this  body.  His  seat  is  left  to  be  filled  by  another. 
Under  the  immediate  view  of  such  an  event,  it  be- 
comes all  seriously  to  reflect  on  the  ways  of  God  in 
his  government  of  the  Church,  during  its  continuance 
in  this  transitory  state. 

"  Especially  should  we,  my  brethren  of  the  clergy, 


92  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

be  deeply  reminded  of  the  solemn  vows  we  made  at 
our  ordination ;  and  resolve,  before  God,  to  feed  the 
flock  committed  to  our  care,  with  the  sincere  milk  of 
his  word,  and  neglect  not  to  stir  up  the  gift  that  is  in 
us  by  the  laying  on  of  hands.  This  gift  many  of 
you  received  through  the  instrumentality  of  those 
hands,  which  have  been  lately  consigned  to  the  tomb, 
and  are  mouldering  into  dust.  Though  they  have 
ceased  any  more  to  perform  the  sacred  rite,  yet 
should  they  be  active  through  you  in  the  spiritual 
work,  to  which  you  are  called  in  repairing  the  waste 
places  of  Zion." 

The  thoughts  and  deliberations  of  the  Convention, 
though  not  summoned  for  that  specific  object,  were 
naturally  turned  to  the  election  of  a  successor  in  the 
Episcopate.  The  Rev.  Tillotson  Bronson  and  eleven 
laymen,  two  of  them  (Nathan  Smith  of  New  Haven 
and  Samuel  Tudor  of  Hartford)  not  members  of 
the  Convention,  but  "  present  with  many  others 
from  a  feeling  of  interest  in  the  result"  were  ap- 
pointed a  committee  to  devise  ways  and  means  for 
increasing  the  Bishop's  Fund,  and  in  their  report, 
which  was  made  on  the  second  day  of  the  session, 
they  directed  that  the  Secretary  should  transmit  to 
the  several  parishes  throughout  the  Diocese  a  cir- 
cular, earnestly  recommending  the  necessity  of  rais- 
ing a  sum  which  would  afford  an  adequate  and 
reasonable  support  of  the  Episcopate  ;  that  the  Stand- 
ing Committee,  by  themselves  or  by  agents  of  their 
appointment,  should  solicit  donations  and  subscrip- 
tions in  all  the  parishes,  and  that  on  or  before  the 
20th  day  of  July,  1813,  every  rector  in  the  State 
be   requested  to    preach   a   sermon    to   his    people, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  93 

"  strongly  enforcing  the  importance  of  accomplishing 
this  most  desirable  object." 

No  time  was  lost  in  acting  upon  the  letter  and 
spirit  of  this  resolution.  The  establishment  of  an 
ample  Episcopal  fund  had  been  a  subject  of  serious 
consideration  for  many  years,  and  the  last  annual  ad- 
dress of  Bishop  Jarvis,  noticed  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter, invoked  a  renewal  of  the  efforts,  which  had  hith- 
erto been  attended  with  very  little  success.  The 
laity  evinced  a  more  hearty  interest  in  the  matter, 
and  felt  that  a  system  of  neglect  so  discreditable  to 
the  Diocese  should  not  be  permitted  to  continue.  At 
the  Special  Convention,  therefore,  on  the  3d  day  of 
the  ensuing  August,  warned  by  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee to  assemble  for  the  purpose  of  electing  a  bish- 
op, steps  were  taken  to  ascertain  the  proportion  of 
each  parish  in  the  Diocese,  according  to  its  taxable 
list,  towards  the  endowment  of  the  Episcopate.  The 
election  of  a  bishop  was  postponed  until  the  last 
Wednesday  in  November,  and  having  secured  for 
publication  a  copy  of  the  sermon  delivered  at  the 
opening  services  by  the  Rev.  Philander  Chase,  then 
Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Hartford,  the  Convention  ad- 
journed and  awaited  the  result  of  the  movements 
which  had  been  thus  initiated. 

The  assessments  on  the  parishes  or  the  proportion 
of  each,  as  estimated  by  a  committee  appointed  at 
this  Convention,  contemplated  an  amount  in  money 
for  the  principal  of  the  fund  which,  at  simple  interest, 
would  yield  an  income  of  not  less  than  one  thousand 
dollars  a  year,  this  being  the  limit  of  the  charter,  and 
as  much  as  the  Episcopalians  deemed  it  prudent  to 
ask  of  the  General  Assembly,  when  the  act  of  incor- 


94  HISTORY   OE  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

poration  was  solicited.  The  amount  of  assessments 
in  1813  upon  seventy-two  parishes  or  congregations, 
was  sixteen  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy  dol- 
lars, but  experience  shows  that  taxes  are  more  easily 
levied  than  collected,  and  not  quite  one  half  the  sum 
here  named  was  afterwards  received. 

When  the  adjourned  Convention  met  in  November 
at  New  Haven,  the  election  of  a  bishop  was  again 
postponed,  and  Charles  Sigourney,  the  treasurer  of 
the  trustees  for  receiving  donations,  appointed  upon 
the  death  of  his  predecessor  three  months  before,  was 
requested  to  visit  the  various  parishes  in  the  Diocese 
and  obtain  from  them  the  amounts  which  they  had 
severally  raised  towards  the  proposed  fund.  The 
winter  was  approaching  and  the  treasurer  at  first  did 
no  more  than  address  them  in  a  printed  circular,  lay- 
ing before  the  members  their  duty  in  respect  to  the 
Episcopate  and  urging  them  to  its  immediate  per- 
formance. The  returns  came  in  slowly,  and  a  few 
months  later  he  travelled  through  many  towns  in  the 
western  part  of  the  State,  where  the  Church  was  the 
strongest,  and  held  personal  interviews  with  leading 
Episcopalians  on  the  business  of  his  mission.  The 
result  was  not  particularly  encouraging,  and  at  the 
next  Annual  Convention,  which  was  also  an  adjourned 
one,  held  in  Woodbury,  June  1,  1814,  no  perceptible 
progress  in  the  movements  of  the  Diocese  towards 
filling  the  vacant  Bishopric  was  made.  After  the 
Convention  had  divided  to  vote  in  the  usual  manner 
by  orders,  the  "  clerical  delegates "  resolved  to  sit 
with  closed  doors.  What  transpired  in  that  secret 
meeting,  the  warm  discussion,  the  sharp  conflicts  of 
opinion,  the  delicate  scrutiny  of  personal  character, 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  95 

the  earnest  advocacy  of  favorite  candidates  by  differ- 
ent clergymen,  the  representation  of  the  absolute 
need  of  Episcopal  oversight  and  of  the  drift  to- 
wards the  Church  by  members  of  the  standing  order 
which  every  day  was  becoming  more  apparent,  all 
these  things  are  unknown  to  us,  for  when  the  veil  of 
secresy  had  been  removed,  the  only  record  of  the 
proceedings  was :  "  Whereas,  the  fund  contemplated 
for  the  support  of  a  bishop  is  not  yet  adequate  to 
that  purpose,  therefore  resolved  that  it  is  inexpedient 
to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  bishop  at  this  time." 
The  question  upon  this  resolution  was  taken  by 
yeas  and  nays,  and  eighteen  out  of  twenty-one  voted 
in  the  affirmative.  It  was  communicated  to  the  House 
of  Lay  Delegates,  who  returned  it  with  their  unani- 
mous concurrence;  and  once  more  the  Convention 
adjourned  to  meet  in  New  Haven  on  the  26th  day  of 
October,  it  being  understood  that  the  object  of  the 
adjournment  was  to  give  opportunity  for  carrying 
into  effect  the  plan  of  raising  an  Episcopal  fund.  But 
when  October  came  and  nineteen  clergymen  and 
thirty- three  laymen  assembled  to  renew  their  delibe- 
rations, the  point  of  highest  importance  was  still  in 
the  distance,  and  again  an  adjournment  took  place 
till  the  annual  meeting  in  June,  the  Convention  hav- 
ing first  directed  the  Standing  Committee,  "upon 
application  from  any  church  or  churches  in  the  Dio- 
cese, to  request  any  bishop  in  the  United  States  to 
attend  an  Episcopal  visitation  among  them."  Thus 
the  clergy  and  laity  met  in  convention  three  times  in 
1813,  and  twice  in  1814,  to  arrange  and  perfect  meas- 
ures for  advancing  the  general  interests  of  the  Church 
in  Connecticut. 


96  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

The  Episcopate,  however,  and  the  duty  of  provid- 
ing for  its  support,  were  not  the  only  subjects  of 
solicitude  with  the  delegates.  At  the  Annual  Con- 
vention of  1814  a  Diocesan  Missionary  Society  was 
projected,  which  looked  both  to  the  supply  of  vacant 
parishes  and  the  aid  of  young  men  in  their  education 
for  the  Christian  ministry.  Though  it  yielded  no 
immediate  fruit  and  was  afterwards  combined  with 
another  agency,  yet  the  formation  of  this  society  is 
some  proof  of  the  zeal  of  the  churchmen  of  that  day 
and  of  their  desire,  as  was  stated  in  the  preamble  of 
the  Constitution,  to  "  extend  a  knowledge  of  our  holy 
religion."  The  Rev.  Bethel  Judd,  at  that  time  Rector 
of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Norwalk,  and  one  of  the  most 
active  of  the  thirty-four  clergymen  in  the  Diocese, 
was  the  head  of  the  movement,  and  took  especial 
pains  to  further  its  design.  There  was  need  enough 
then  for  an  increase  of  the  ministry.  The  Church  in 
other  States  was  but  poorly  supplied,  and  the  whole 
number  of  Episcopal  clergymen  throughout  our  coun- 
try was  scarcely  above  two  hundred,  and  one  sixth  of 
these  resided  in  Connecticut.  The  adoption  of  the 
missionary  principle,  therefore,  in  connection  with  the 
proffer  of  assistance  to  young  men  seeking  an  edu- 
cation with  a  view  to  Holy  Orders,  was  a  step  forward, 
and  all  the  more  to  be  commended  because  it  was 
taken  at  a  period  when  the  tone  of  general  feeling 
was  not  in  sympathy  with  a  broad  and  large-hearted 
charity. 

The  generation  which  knew  Bishop  Seabury  and 
fell  under  his  instructions  had  not  yet  passed  away. 
He  was  remembered  in  the  older  parishes  with  grati- 
tude and  affection,  and  the  new  ones,  which  had  been 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  97 

recently  engaged  in  erecting  houses  of  worship,  were 
guided  in  their  type  of  churchmanship  by  the  prin- 
ciples of  which  he  was  an  admirable  exponent  and 
defender.  His  disinterested  and  primitive  zeal  in  the 
cause  of  the  Apostolic  Church  was  often  recalled,  and 
men  spoke  of  him  with  a  reverence  which  had  re- 
spect as  well  to  his  personal  character  as  to  his  office. 
It  was  about  this  time  that  his  discourses  on  several 
subjects,  in  two  volumes,  were  published  by  subscrip- 
tion for  the  benefit  of  his  family,  from  manuscripts 
prepared  by  the  author  himself,  and  with  a  dedication, 
"  To  the  Episcopal  Clergy  of  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island,  ...  in  token  of  the  regard  and  esteem  of  their 
affectionate  Diocesan."  Lay-readers  used  them  freely 
in  the  vacant  parishes,  and  probably  no  sermons  were 
more  familiar  to  the  churchmen  of  Connecticut  half  a 
century  ago  than  these.  They  helped  to  teach  them 
sound  Christian  doctrine  and  to  preserve  in  their 
minds  the  image  of  a  godly  and  sainted  prelate.  An 
original  portrait  of  the  first  Bishop  of  Connecticut, 
painted  by  Thomas  S.  Duche,  and  presented  to  the 
Diocese  through  Bishop  White  by  a  sister  of  the 
painter,1  now  hangs  in  the  library  of  Trinity  College, 
and  no  one  acquainted  with  his  history  can  look  at 
it,  without  a  feeling  of  gratitude  to  God  for  the  noble 
work  which  He  enabled  Seabury  to  accomplish. 

1  "  In  the  room  where  I  am  writing  at  this  time,  I  have  before  my  eyes  a 
very  good  picture  of  Bishop  Seabury,  the  painter  of  which  was  my  partic- 
ular friend.  He  painted  another  fine  picture  for  the  front  of  my  church 
organ,  where  it  is  now  to  be  seen,  and  is  much  admired  ;  but  it  so  happened 
(longa  est  historia)  that  that  picture  was  the  occasion  of  his  death."  —  MS. 
Letter,  Wm.  Jones  of  Nayland  to  Dr.  Botvdcn,  1799. 

Thomas  Spence  Duche,  the  son  of  Rev.  Jacob  Duche  of  Philadelphia, 
died  in  England,  in  1790,  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  and  was  buried 
in  Lambeth  church-yard. 

VOL.  II.  7 


98  HISTORY  OF   THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

The  great  business  of  the  Christian  ministry  is  to 
preach  the  Gospel,  and  all  themes  in  their  treatment 
should  converge  to  its  one  centre,  "  Jesus  Christ  and 
Him  crucified."  Men  are  influenced  by  the  tone  of 
religious  sentiment  around  them  and  by  the  age  in 
which  they  live.  At  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  the  staple  of  the  pulpit  in  New  England  was 
largely  made  up  of  scholastic  essays  and  dry  meta- 
physical disquisitions ;  and  among  the  people  there 
was  an  extensive  prejudice  against  the  sterner  fea- 
tures of  Calvinism.  While  in  the  neighboring  com- 
monwealth of  Massachusetts,  some  voice  from  time  to 
time  was  heard,  uttering  what  many  feared  or  hesi- 
tated to  believe,  while  single  ministers  called  out  to 
admonish  all  of  the  rapid  current,  which,  without  a 
breath  of  air,  was  wafting  them  away  into  Socinian- 
ism  —  in  Connecticut  the  rigid,  dogmatic  theology  of 
the  Puritans  was  still  received  and  accepted  as  a 
whole  by  the  Congregationalists ;  or  where  intelli- 
gent minds  among  the  laity  renounced  it,  they  re- 
nounced it,  not  to  deny  the  Lord  that  bought  them, 
but  to  join  a  communion  in  whose  venerable  Liturgy 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  most  thoroughly  recog- 
nized and  taught.  Hence  if  it  be  true  that  the  intel- 
ligent religious  sentiment  of  Massachusetts,  restless 
under  the  severe  teachings  of  the  prevailing  denomi- 
nation there  and  separating  from  it,  became  Unitarian, 
it  is  also  true  that  the  same  sentiment  under  like  con- 
ditions in  Connecticut  fled  for  satisfaction  and  repose 
to  the  bosom  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

This  may  account  in  part  for  the  general  style  of 
preaching  among  our  older  clergy  at  that  period. 
Controversy  had  sharpened  their  logical  powers  and 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  99 

made  them  feel  that  it  was  necessary  to  draw  atten- 
tion to  the  Christian  doctrines  embodied  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer,  and  to  the  essential  and  practical 
duties  of  life.  With  some  of  them,  perhaps,  there  was 
too  much  zeal  for  forms :  the  scaffolding  prepared  for 
use  in  erecting  the  building  was  watched  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  building  itself.  They  sprung  to  the  oppo- 
site extreme  from  Calvinism  and  were  apparently  more 
diligent  in  explaining  the  government  and  external 
order  of  the  Church  than  in  enforcing  the  great  and 
vital  truths  of  the  Gospel.  Their  sermons  were  chiefly 
plain,  didactic  essays,  correct  but  cold,  and  calculated 
to  instruct  the  judgment  rather  than  to  warm  the 
heart.  Hubbard  at  New  Haven,  and  Tyler  at  Nor- 
wich, both  good  men  and  faithful  ministers  for  life 
in  their  respective  parishes,  were  types  of  a  school 
in  theology  which  laid  much  stress  upon  the  inculca- 
tion of  moral  duties.  Kayner  at  Huntington,  and 
Barber  at  Waterbury,  both  afterwards  recreant  to  the 
Church,  were  as  remarkable  for  earnestness  and  abil- 
ity in  the  defence  of  their  favorite  tenets  as  for  sow- 
ing the  seeds  of  mischief  and  discontent  along  their 
paths.  Mansfield,  now  for  more  than  half  a  century 
the  grave  and  sensible  pastor  at  Derby,  Ashbel  Bald- 
win, Bronson,  Burhans,  Ives,  and  Shelton  were  all  ex- 
amples of  those  embassadors  for  Christ  who  will  not 
believe  that  it  is  any  violation  of  charity  to  maintain 
stoutly,  as  this  Church  understands  it,  "  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints." 

With  these  was  intermingled  a  class  of  minds 
differently  tempered  —  not  less  tenacious  of  the  ex- 
ternals of  religion,  but  more  zealous  in  the  proclama- 
tion of  its  saving  truths.     In  the  spring  of  1809,  the 


100  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Rev.  John  Kewley,  M.  D.,  of  Maryland,  formerly  a 
Romish  priest,  became  Rector  of  the  parish  at  Mid- 
dletown,  and  for  nearly  four  years  he  was  one  of  the 
most  active  and  influential  presbyters  in  the  Diocese. 
He  was  an  eloquent  and  evangelical  preacher,  who 
gained  a  wide  popularity  and  impressed  his  hearers 
in  all  places  with  a  conviction  of  his  entire  earnest- 
ness. In  the  summer  of  1811,  he  delivered  a  dis- 
course at  the  institution  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitlock 
as  Assistant  Minister  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven, 
and  another  in  October  of  the  same  year,  at  the  an- 
niversary of  the  Episcopal  Academy  of  Connecticut. 
Both  these  discourses  were  subsequently  printed,  and 
in  a  preface  to  the  latter,  this  reason  is  given  for  its 
publication :  "  The  devotional  exercises  of  the  day 
had  not  long  been  finished,  before  the  author  was 
credibly  informed  that  some  of  the  brethren  present 
had  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  was  a  Calvinistic 
discourse,  and  consequently,  in  their  opinion  at  least, 
not  in  conformity  with  the  established  doctrines  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  In  justice,  there- 
fore, to  himself,  and  to  prevent  misconstruction  and 
misrepresentation,  and  to  enable  his  respected  clerical 
brethren  to  form  a  just  judgment  of  it,  he  commits 
it  to  the  press,  with  these  remarks  :  That  if  the  doc- 
trines he  herein  advocates  are  peculiarly  Calvinistic, 
he  must  confess  he  is  unable  to  decide  to  what  other 
system  the  Articles  and  Liturgy  of  the  Church  give 
countenance ;  and  if  it  appears  that  the  sentiments 
contained  in  this  discourse  are  in  agreement  with  the 
established  standards  of  Church  doctrine,  as  he  be- 
lieves they  are,  and  the  clergy  teach  them  not,  he 
cannot  but  express  a  desire  that  a  reformation  may 
soon  take  place  in  this  particular." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  101 

Dr.  Kewley  closed  his  useful  and  acceptable  minis- 
try of  the  church  in  Middletown  on  the  10th  of 
March,  1813,  when  he  delivered  a  valedictory  dis- 
course to  his  people  which,  at  their  request,  was  pub- 
lished. A  brief  extract  from  it  will  show  the  tone  of 
his  piety  and  the  style  of  his  preaching.  "  Unless  we 
feel  ourselves  undone  by  the  holy,  pure,  and  perfect 
law  of  God,  we  shall  never  duly  prize  the  Gospel  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  we  shall  discover  nothing  in 
it  to  command  a  hearty  joy  and  gratitude  to  God  for 
its  promulgation.  Unless  we  are  convinced  of  the 
plague  of  our  nature,  and  of  our  spiritual  diseases 
and  infirmities,  we  shall  never  apply  to  that  heavenly 
Physician  who  alone  is  in  possession  of  those  remedies 
which  can  relieve  us  and  make  us  whole.  But  if  we 
are  truly  and  thoroughly  convinced  of  our  sinful  and 
depraved  nature ;  if  we  behold  with  horror  its  evil 
effects  as  manifested  in  our  lives  and  dispositions ;  if 
we  have  a  lively  sense  of  the  dreadful  consequences 
which  must  ensue,  and  groan  under  the  burden  of  our 
guilt  and  condemnation  ;  if  our  conscience  is  thor- 
oughly awakened,  and  we  are  laboring  in  all  the  au- 
guish  of  a  wounded  spirit;  then  the  Gospel  will  be 
truly  to  us  glad  tidings ;  the  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  the  love  of  God,  and  the  communion  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  will  be  esteemed  the  most  valuable  bless- 
ings ;  we  shall  seek  after  them  as  after  a  pearl  of 
great  price  ;  we  shall  joyfully  embrace  them ;  Christ 
will  then  appear  to  us  precious,  altogether  lovely, 
and  the  chief  among  ten  thousand." * 

During  his  residence  in  Connecticut,  Dr.  Kewley 
had  been  honored  with  the  confidence  of  his  breth- 

1  Pages  7  and  8. 


102  HISTORY  OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

ren,  had  been  chosen  a  member  of  the  Standing 
Committee,  and  a  delegate  to  the  General  Conven- 
tion ;  and  when  he  removed  from  the  Diocese,  it  was 
to  assume  the  rectorship  of  St.  George's  Church  in 
the  city  of  New  York.  Here  he  manifested  the  same 
zealous  interest  in  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  for  three 
years  filled  the  position  which  he  had  reached  with 
distinguished  ability  and  success.  But  one  morning, 
his  arrangements  for  leave  of  absence  having  been 
previously  made,  Bishop  Hobart  was  startled  by  a 
note  from  him,  written  on  board  the  vessel  that  was 
to  bear  him  to  the  shores  of  Europe,  in  which  he  stated 
that  he  was  returning  to  his  mother,  the  Church  of 
Rome,  to  whose  service  he  should  henceforth  devote 
himself  and  all  his  energies.  Many  have  believed 
that,  while  acting  in  our  communion,  he  was  but  a 
Jesuit  in  the  disguise  of  Protestantism.  It  is  certain 
that  while  in  Connecticut,  he  tampered  with  one  or 
two  of  the  theological  students  at  the  Episcopal  Acad- 
emy, and  advocated  the  duty  of  celibacy  in  the  clergy 
with  all  the  zeal  of  a  cloistered  bachelor  in  the  middle 
ages.  The  only  notice  which  Bishop  Hobart  takes 
of  his  relapse  in  his  annual  address  for  1816,  is,  "the 
Rev.  John  Kewley,  M.  D.,  formerly  Rector  of  St. 
George's  Church,  has  removed  to  Europe." 

Coeval  with  this  event  was  the  perversion  of  the 
Rev.  Virgil  H.  Barber,  ordained  a  Deacon  by  Bishop 
Jarvis  in  1805  and  for  several  years  Rector  of  St. 
John's  Church,  Waterbury.  In  connection  with  his 
ministerial  duties  he  engaged  in  teaching  a  school  of 
a  higher  order,  required  his  household  to  converse  in 
Latin,  and  when  he  relinquished  his  parish  in  the 
spring  of  1814,  and   removed   from  Connecticut   to 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  103 

Fairfield  in  the  State  of  New  York,  he  still  united  the 
same  occupations.  He  had  already  signalized  himself 
in  the  defence  of  one  peculiar  tenet.  He  and  the 
Eev.  Benjamin  Benham  of  Brookfield  memorialized 
the  General  Convention  of  1811  to  procure  from  that 
body  a  declaration  of  the  invalidity  of  lay-baptism. 
The  subject  of  the  memorial  was  debated,  but  it  was 
resolved  to  be  inexpedient  to  take  any  order  thereon. 
Mr.  Barber  professed  to  be  conscientiously  scrupulous 
about  admitting  as  members  of  his  congregation  per- 
sons who  had  received  no  other  baptism,  and  the 
very  next  year  after  the  rejection  of  his  memorial,  in 
giving  the  statistics  of  his  parish,  he  reported  as  the 
number  baptized  fifty-nine  infants  and  eleven  adults, 
u  seven  of  whom  had  previously  received  lay-baptism." 
Such  teachings  and  such  a  course  were  calculated  to 
disturb  the  minds  of  Christian  people,  and  their  un- 
happy effects  lingered  in  Waterbury  and  its  vicinity 
long  after  his  departure.  But  in  1817  he  had  sundered 
all  domestic  ties,  left  his  family  (whom  his  own  treat- 
ment had  learned  to  undergo  a  severe  discipline),  and 
joined  the  Church  of  Rome  —  a  church  in  which  it 
is  so  far  from  being  heretical  to  accept  lay-baptism, 
that  it  is  not  uncommon  for  midwives  to  baptize. 
"It  is  a  well  known  property  of  extremes,"  says 
Bishop  White,  "  that  they  are  often  seen  making  the 
connecting  points  of  a  circle." 

Mr.  Barber  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Daniel  Barber  of 
Vermont,  whom  Bishop  Seabury  ordained  a  Deacon 
in  1786  ;  and  the  steps  of  the  father  were  not  far  be- 
hind those  of  the  son  in  entering  the  Romish  Com- 
munion. The  elder,  after  leaving  his  Protestant 
friends,  spent  his  life  in  Georgetown,  D.  C,  but  the 


104  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

son  repaired  to  the  seat  of  the  papacy,  and  there, 
in  a  College  of  the  Jesuits,  under  the  name  of 
Signori  Barberini,  a  travelling  clergyman  of  our 
Church  found  him  in  Passion  Week,  1818,  and  the 
brief  interview  must  have  revived  for  both  the  recol- 
lection of  better  days. 1 

These  defections  from  the  Church,  being  events  of 
singular  occurrence,  excited  at  the  time  much  atten- 
tion. They  were  soon  followed  by  another,  that  of 
the  Rev.  Calvin  White  of  Derby,  —  "a  humble  coun- 
try clergyman,  whose  quaintness,  learning,  and  good- 
heartedness  cast  a  sunbeam  upon  poverty  itself; " 
and  who,  in  writing  to  Bishop  Hobart,  then  in  charge 
of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  touching  his  views  of 
Roman  Catholic  authority,  said :  u  If  holding  these 
opinions  is  inconsistent  with  my  holding  a  peaceable 
stand  upon  Protestant  (/round,  I  can  retire  in  peace, 
unwilling  to  give  my  Bishop  or  brethren  a  moment's 
discomposure,  —  my  importance  in  the  Church  is  not 
worth  it,  —  only  asking  the  blessedness  of  sitting 
under  mine  own  vine  and  mine  own  fig-tree,  disturb- 

1  "  On  being  conducted  to  this  person's  room,  I  found  him  whom  I  had 
sought,  transformed  in  appearance  as  well  as  name.  He  received  me  with 
great  cordiality  and  joy,  but  without  any  wonder  or  surprise.  I  spent  a 
short  time  with  him  very  pleasantly.  He  spoke  with  freedom  of  the  rites 
and  ceremonies  of  his  adopted  religion,  but  with  perfect  delicacy,  and  the 
most  studied  regard  to  my  feelings.  There  was  even  a  liberality  in  cen- 
suring what  he  thought  blame-worthy,  which  was  somewhat  surprising  in  a 
new  convert. 

"  A  hard  bed,  laid  on  bare  planks,  a  table,  a  desk,  two  or  three  chairs,  a 
small  crucifix,  and  the  pictures  of  some  Romish  saints,  were  all  the  articles 
with  which  his  solitary  chamber  was  furnished.  He  was  dressed  in  the 
coarse  black  cassock,  which  is  the  habit  of  his  order;  the  crown  of  his  head 
was  shaved,  and  both  in  his  countenance  and  in  all  the  objects  around  him 
there  was  an  air  of  austerity  and  mortification."  —  Rev.  Win.  Berrian's 
1'ravels  in  France  and  Italy,  pp.  122,  123. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  105 

ing  no  man,  and  by  none  disturbed.  I  repose  my 
concern  upon  your  paternal  bosom,  waiting  for  a 
reply."  1 

At  a  later  date  he  was  displaced  from  the  minis- 
try by  the  Bishop  of  Connecticut,  according  to  the 
provisions  of  the  Canon,  and  lived  henceforth  the  life 
of  a  quiet  layman  in  sight  of  the  sanctuary  where  he 
had  so  long  officiated.  Not  one  of  his  children  then 
followed  him  in  his  doctrinal  errors,  and  he  himself  at 
times  evinced  such  an  affection  for  the  Episcopal 
Church  as  to  lead  some  of  his  charitable  friends  to 
think  that  his  early  faith  was  still  in  his  heart.  He 
did  not,  however,  renounce  his  connection  with  the 
Church  of  Kome,  and  died  in  her  communion. 

1  Professional  Years  of  Bishop  Hobart,  p.  332. 


106  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CORNER-STONE  OF  TRINITY  CHURCH,  NEW  HAVEN,  LAID;  DEATH 
OF  MR.  WHITLOCK;  ELECTION  OF  A  BISHOP;  AND  INCREASE  OF 
THE  CHURCH. 

A.    D.    1814-1815. 

The  original  proprietors  of  the  township  of  New 
Haven  reserved  for  public  uses  a  handsome  central 
square.  From  the  beginning,  it  was  occupied  with  a 
house  of  worship  and  the  graves  of  the  dead;  an^ 
then  with  a  second  meeting-house,  and  such  other 
buildings  as  were  needed  for  the  convenience  and 
protection  of  a  well-ordered  community. 

Besides  the  Chapel  of  Yale  College  and  a  small 
wooden  structure  for  the  Methodists,  the  only  houses 
of  public  worship  in  New  Haven  in  1812  were  the 
"  Middle  Brick  Meeting-house,"  belonging  to  the  First 
Ecclesiastical  Society ;  just  north  of  this  a  wooden 
building,  the  church  of  the  "United  Society;"1  both 
Congregational — and  Trinity  Church,  east  of  the  Greg- 
son  Glebe.  The  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  rich  and 
prosperous,  and  led  on  by  a  few  of  its  wealthiest 
members,  prepared  at  the  close  of  that  year  to  re- 

1  The  house  built  for  the  "  White  Haven  Society,"  known  as  the  Blue 
Meeting-house,  was  also  standing  on  the  corner  of  Elm  and  Church  Streets, 
but  the  congregation  had  joined  the  "  Fair  Haven  Society"  on  the 
Green,  and  the  two  were  incorporated  under  the  name  of  "  The  United 
Societies  of  White  Haven  and  Fair  Haven."  They  worshipped  alternate 
months  in  each  building.  The  Legislature  in  1815  reduced  their  corporate 
title  to  "  The  United  Society." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  107 

move  the  "Middle  Brick,"  which  had  become  too 
small  for  the  congregation,  and  to  erect  on  its  site  a 
larger  and  more  imposing  edifice  after  designs  and 
specifications  furnished  by  a  skillful  architect.  The 
contractors  had  scarcely  demolished  the  old  building 
and  commenced  their  new  work  before  the  "  United 
Society  "  —  not  willing  to  be  outdone  by  their  neigh- 
bors —  engaged  in  a  similar  enterprise,  and  proceeded 
to  build  a  "  costly  and  splendid  meeting-house."  Tax- 
ation, the  usual  method  adopted  in  such  cases  to  raise 
the  necessary  funds,  was  not  resorted  to  here,  since  a 
number  of  leading  men  in  each  society  stipulated,  on 
certain  conditions,  to  complete  the  buildings  and  to 
reimburse  themselves  for  their  expenditures  by  the 
sale  of  pews. 

The  plan  to  erect  a  new  church  had,  for  some  time, 
been  simmering  in  the  minds  of  the  vestry  of  Trinity 
Parish,  and  these  movements  on  the  part  of  the  Con- 
gregationalists  served  to  quicken  those  of  the  Episco- 
palians. They  could  not  but  feel  that  it  would  greatly 
promote  their  prosperity  to  substitute  for  the  old 
wooden  edifice  on  Church  Street,  a  stately  Gothic 
structure  built  of  stone  in  a  commanding  position  on 
the  public  square.  Drawings  were,  therefore,  ob- 
tained from  the  same  architect  who  had  been  em- 
ployed by  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  and  a  novel 
and  unique  scheme  was  immediately  set  on  foot  to 
secure  their  execution.  At  a  legal  meeting  of  the 
parish,  held  October  18,  1813,  the  plan  or  agreement 
submitted  by  the  vestry  for  raising  funds  to  build  a 
church,  was  accepted  on  the  terms  and  conditions  there- 
in named.  The  preamble  of  this  plan  stated  that  the 
members  were  "  desirous  of  erecting  a  new  church  on 


108  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  Green,  south  of  the  Court  house,  for  the  better 
accommodation  of  the  congregation,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  provide  that  the  parish,  by  the  rents  of  the 
pews,  shall  be  enabled  not  only  to  defray  the  charge 
of  building  such  church,  but  also  eventually  to  dis- 
charge thereby  the  annual  expenses  of  the  Society." 
The  amount  of  expense  of  the  new  church  was  di- 
vided into,  shares  of  fifty  dollars  each,  payable  in  in- 
stallments as  the  money  should  be  wanted,  and  the 
wardens  and  vestrymen  for  the  time  being,  under 
whose  direction  it  was  to  be  built,  were  authorized 
to  proceed  with  the  work  when  four  hundred  shares 
were  subscribed  for,  but  no  subscriber  was  to  be  liable 
for  more  than  fifty  dollars  upon  each  share  of  stock. 
"When  the  building  was  finished,  certificates  were  to 
be  issued  to  the  stockholders,  the  stock  being  trans- 
ferable, and  the  annual  rent  of  the  pews  was  to  be 
considered  as  pledged  for  the  payment  of  the  interest 
at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent,  per  annum,  and  any  sur- 
plus was  to  be  applied  from  time  to  time  towards  the 
reduction  of  the  principal,  but  in  no  event  was  the 
"  Society  of  Trinity  Church  to  be  held  responsible  for 
the  payment  of  such  principal  or  interest,  or  any  part 
thereof."  The  Society  might  redeem  at  its  pleasure 
"  the  amount  of  the  capital  stock  or  any  part "  of  it, 
and  upon  its  redemption  in  full  the  new  church  was 
to  become  the  absolute  property  of  Trinity  Parish. 
There  was  another  stipulation  in  these  words.  "If 
at  any  time  after  the  expiration  of  four  years  from 
the  completion  of  the  new  church,  it  shall  appear 
that  the  rents  of  the  pews  and  slips  shall  be  insuffi- 
cient to  pay  the  interest  upon  the  stock,  then  the 
wardens  and  vestry  may  sell  said  pews  and  slips,  or 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  109 

any  part  thereof  at  their  discretion,  and  apply  the 
avails  of  such  sales  to  the  payment  of  the  principal 
and  interest  of  said  stock,  provided,  however,  that 
no  such  sale  shall  be  made  without  the  consent  first 
obtained  of  stockholders  to  the  amount  of  three  hun- 
dred shares  ;  and  provided,  also,  that  the  consent  to 
such  sale  shall  be  given  by  the  Bishop  of  the  Dio- 
cese ;  and  in  case  the  Episcopal  office  be  vacant,  then 
no  such  sale  shall  be  made  without  the  consent  of  the 
Standing  Committee." 

The  subscription  to  all  the  articles  of  agreement 
was  upon  the  further  condition  that  when  the  new 
church  was  built,  it  was  to  be  used  by  the  Episcopa- 
lians of  the  city,  and  the  old  edifice  on  Church  Street 
was  to  be  no  longer  occupied  as  a  place  of  public 
worship.  Upwards  of  five  hundred  shares  had  been 
subscribed  for  when  the  parish  voted  its  approval  of 
the  plan  and  authorized  the  vestry  to  proceed. 1  Thus 
three  costly  houses  of  public  worship  were  going  up 

1  "  In  all  the  official  proceedings  with  regard  to  the  new  church,  the  site 
is  uniformly  designated  as  on  the  Green,  south  of  the  Court-house.  As  the 
old  Court-house  has  long  since  passed  away,  the  meaning  of  this  may  not 
be  well  understood  without  a  word  of  explanation.  The  Court-house  was 
an  old  and  ill-looking  structure,  located  near  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
centre  green,  and  projecting  into  what  is  known  as  Temple  Street.  It 
stood  nearly  on  a  parallel  line  with  the  old  meeting-house  of  the  First  Ec- 
clesiastical Society.  That  meeting-house  was  at  the  time  to  be  demolished, 
and  a  portion  of  its  place  occupied  by  the  graceful  and  symmetrical  build- 
ing, called  the  Centre  Church.  On  the  opposite  or  northeast  corner  of  the 
Green,  a  new  meeting-house  was  also  in  progress  of  erection  for  the  '  United 
Society '  so  called  in  law,  but  generally  known  as  the  North  Church.  The 
right  of  building  Trinity  Church  on  the  corner  south  of  the  Court-house 
was  obtained  with  great  difficulty,  on  account  of  the  jealousies  existing  on 
the  part  of  the  Congregational  societies.  After  it  was  obtained,  therefore, 
no  legal  measure  or  usage  was  omitted  that  might  be  necessary  to  secure 
and  hold  its  possession."— Rev.  Dr.  II.  Croswells  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish, 
MS. 


110  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

on  the  Green,  side  by  side  and  nearly  equidistant  from 
each  other,  at  the  same  time  during  the  war  of  1812, 
—  a  war  which  so  far  had  not  diminished  the  gains  of 
the  merchants  and  traders  of  New  Haven.  The  16th 
day  of  May,  1814,  was  fixed  upon  for  the  ceremony 
of  laying  the  corner-stone  of  Trinity  Church,  and 
the  Rector,  the  Rev.  Henry  Whitlock,  being  absent  on 
a  journey  for  his  health,  the  Rev.  Samuel  F.  Jarvis  of 
New  York,  "  son  of  Abraham,  late  Bishop  of  Connect- 
icut," was  requested  to  perform  divine  service  on  the 
occasion  and  make  the  address.  The  religious  cere- 
monies were  postponed  until  the  17th  on  account  of 
a  storm,  and  on  that  day  the  congregation  assembled 
in  the  old  church  for  Morning  Prayer,  and  then  a 
procession  was  formed  to  the  foundations  of  the  new 
edifice,  where  the  remaining  services  were  held  in  the 
presence  of  a  large  concourse  of  people.  The  address 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Jarvis  was  a  finished  production,  in 
which  he  spoke  of  "the  elegances  of  life  and  the  re- 
finements of  taste,"  being  the  gifts  of  God  as  much 
as  any  other  blessings  that  we  enjoy,  and  added :  — 
"  In  this  view,  it  is  a  source  of  great  pleasure,  that 
you,  my  brethren,  will  set  a  laudable  example  to  your 
fellow-Christians  by  erecting  your  church  according 
to  a  mode  of  architecture  of  which,  as  yet,  there  is 
not  a  perfect  and  pure  specimen  through  the  whole 
of  the  American  republic."  Before  such  an  assem- 
blage and  at  such  a  time,  some  allusion  to  Dr.  Hubbard 
and  his  own  father,  both  recently  deceased,  was  nat- 
ural, and  the  address  concluded  thus  :  — 

"  If  blessed  spirits,  after  they  have  left  this  busy 
stage  of  being,  take  any  interest  in  its  affairs  (and  I 
know  not  that  either  reason  or  religion  will  forbid  the 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  Ill 

thought),  with  what  delight  must  jour  late  venerable 
Rector,  and  the  friend  of  his  early  years,  his  compan- 
ion in  life,  and  his  speedy  follower  in  death,  behold 
this  present  scene !  You  will  remember  with  what  in- 
terest they  thought  and  spoke  of  this  event.  For  more 
than  five  years  did  they  cherish  the  hope  of  seeing 
this  church  erected  ;  nor  was  it  till  after  repeated  dis- 
appointments, that  at  length  they  discarded  with  re- 
luctance, what  seemed  at  that  time  to  be  a  fruitless 
expectation.  The  feelings  of  our  nature  compel  us  to 
regret  that  their  evening  hours  were  not  gilded  by  the 
same  prospect  which  now  cheers  our  view.  But  it 
would  not  become  us  to  repine  at  the  dispensations  of 
Heaven.  All  events  are  in  the  hands  of  an  omniscient 
God,  and  it  was  his  pleasure  to  remove  them,  we  trust 
to  a  happier  state  of  being,  without  having  the  warm 
wishes  of  their  hearts  gratified.  Instead  of  lament- 
ing their  absence,  let  us  rather  be  thankful  that  we 
are  permitted  to  be  present  on  this  joyful  occasion  ; 
and  let  us  learn  from  this  signal  instance  not  to  de- 
spond, if  engaged  in  a  laudable  cause,  even  when  our 
exertions  seem  to  be  most  ineffectual.  The  provi- 
dence of  God  often  brings  about  events  when  they  are 
least  expected.  Eighteen  months  have  scarcely  elapsed 
since  all  hope  and  all  expectation  that  this  stone 
would  be  laid,  seemed  as  unsubstantial  as  a  morning 
dream." 

While  the  walls  of  the  new  church  were  slowly 
rising,  the  hopes  of  the  parishioners  in  regard  to  the 
recovery  of  their  Rector  were  gradually  diminishing. 
The  health  of  Mr.  Whitlock  slowly  declined.  The  pro- 
gress of  the  disease  which  had  fastened  itself  upon  him 
was  not  abated  by  the  suspension  of  his  labors,  and  he 


112  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

began  to  feel  that  he  should  never  be  able  to  resume 
his  parochial  duties.  In  the  summer  of  1814,  when 
his  pulpit  was  supplied  from  Cheshire,  the  Rev.  H. 
Croswell  of  Hudson,  N.  Y.,  then  in  deacon's  orders, 
spent  a  Sunday  in  New  Haven,  and  it  so  happened 
that  both  of  the  clergymen  who  had  been  officiating 
temporarily  were  absent  on  that  day,  and  a  theologi- 
cal student  had  been  sent  to  take  their  place  as  lay- 
reader.  The  services  of  the  visiting  minister,  there- 
fore, were  solicited,  and  he  filled  the  vacancy  with 
great  acceptance  to  the  congregation.  "  On  the  fol- 
lowing morning,"  said  he,  "  I  called  to  pay  my  respects 
to  Mr.  Whitlock.  It  was  my  first  and  only  acquain- 
tance with  him.  I  was  struck  with  his  saint-like  ap- 
pearance. A  spectacle  of  more  lovely  Christian  faith 
and  humility  I  never  witnessed.  He  was  pale,  emaci- 
ated, feeble,  and  could  scarcely  speak  above  a  whisper. 
He  seemed  under  a  little  restraint,  while  his  family 
were  present ;  but  the  moment  he  found  himself 
alone  with  me,  he  expressed  his  views  of  his  condi- 
tion with  entire  freedom." * 

In  the  hope  of  prolonging  his  days  and  possibly  of 
being  in  a  measure  restored,  Mr.  Whitlock  resolved  to 
seek  a  southern  climate,  and  early  in  the  autumn  of 
this  year  he  made  his  arrangements,  and  leaving  his 
family  behind  took  his  departure  from  New  Haven. 
Soon  after  the  commencement  of  his  journey,  he  com- 
municated his  proposal  to  retire  from  the  rectorship, 
in  consequence  of  ill  health,  and  "  requested  the  par- 
ish to  join  with  him  in  asking  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authority  of  the  Diocese,  a  dissolution  of  their  pas- 
toral connection."     His  request  was  acceded  to  and 

1  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  113 

the  parish  voted  to  pay  him,  annually,  two  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  for  a  period  of  four  years,  from  Oc- 
tober 21,  1814,  the  date  of  his  letter  of  resignation. 
At  the  same  meeting  (October  31st)  measures  were 
adopted  to  fill  the  vacancy  thus  created,  and  the  Rev. 
Harry  Croswell  was  invited  to  settle  as  the  minister 
of  the  parish  at  a  salary  of  one  thousand  dollars  per 
annum,  which  had  been  the  salary  allowed  to  Mr. 
Whitlock.  He  ultimately  accepted  the  invitation,  and 
preached  his  introductory  sermons  on  the  first  clay  of 
the  ensuing  January,  which  was  Sunday,  and  made  an 
affecting  allusion  in  one  of  them  to  the  former  rec- 
tor  of  the  church  "even  now,"  to  quote  his  words,  "in 
a  distant  land,  withering  as  the  grass  and  fading  as  the 
flower  under  the  hand  of  disease."  It  heightened  the 
melancholy  interest  of  the  occasion  that,  on  the  same 
day,  an  infant  daughter  of  Mr.  Whitlock,  born  during 
his  absence,  was  presented  for  baptism  by  the  mother 
in  conformity  with  the  wishes  of  her  husband.  Intel- 
ligence at  that  period  travelled  slowly,  and  though  he 
was  arrested  in  his  progress  further  South,  and  had 
died  at  Fayetteville,  N.  O,  on  Christmas-day,  yet  the 
news  of  his  decease  did  not  reach  New  Haven  until 
the  lapse  of  nearly  a  fortnight. 

Of  the  fourteen  years  of  Mr.  Whitlock's  ministry, 
the  last  ten  were  passed  in  Connecticut,  where  he 
was  honored  and  greatly  beloved  by  his  brethren. 
He  was  but  thirty-six  when  he  died,  and  few  clergy- 
men were  ever  more  truly  enthroned  in  the  affec- 
tions of  their  people,  or  had  richer  prospects  of  use- 
fulness than  he,  when  he  became  prostrated  by  the 
disease  which  finally  terminated  his  life.  His  three 
published  discourses,  one  delivered  before  the  Conven- 


114  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

tion  of  the  Diocese  in  1806,  another  at  the  institution 
into  the  rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  Hartford,  of  the 
Rev.  Philander  Chase,  —  whom  he  calls  "my  dear 
brother  and  friend  of  my  youth," —  and  the  third 
delivered  at  the  interment  of  Dr.  Hubbard,  all  bear 
marks  of  Christian  scholarship,  and  of  a  mind  sancti- 
fied in  the  love  of  his  Divine  Master,  and  devoted  to 
the  edification  of  "  the  Church  of  the  living  God,  the 
pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth." 

At  the  Annual  Convention,  which  met  in  Middle- 
town  on  the  7th  of  June,  1815,  twenty-nine  clergy- 
men and  thirty-eight  lay-delegates  were  present. 
There  were  some  new  names  in  both  orders ;  and  in 
the  clerical,  two  or  three  that  afterwards  filled  a 
prominent  place  in  the  history  of  the  Diocese.  Reu- 
ben Sherwood  had  been  added  to  the  list  of  deacons ; 
and  Harry  Croswell,  who  in  the  earlier  portion  of  his 
life  had  been  familiar  with  the  schemes  of  wary  poli- 
ticians, took  his  seat  for  the  first  time  in  that  Conven- 
tion. "  I  entered  this  ecclesiastical  body "  said  he, 
"  with  some  shades  of  distrust.  But  I  feel  bound  and 
glad  to  confess,  that  I  was  most  favorably  impressed 
with  the  general  appearance  of  this  council  of  the 
Church.  And  although  it  was  easy  to  perceive  that 
it  was  not  wholly  exempt  from  the  strivings  of  ambi- 
tion, and  the  workings  of  jealousy  and  prejudice, 
these  feelings  were  more  than  overbalanced  by  the 
general  air  of  reverence  and  devotion  which  per- 
vaded the  whole  assembly." 

Bishop  Griswold  of  the  Eastern  Diocese,  composed 
of  all  the  New  England  States,  except  Connecticut, 
was  present  at  this  Convention,  having  been  invited 
just  a  month  before  by  the  Standing  Committee,  un- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  115 

der  the  resolution  referred  to  in  the  previous  chapter, 
to  officiate  in  certain  parishes  where  Episcopal  visita- 
tions were  desired ;  and  to  hold  a  special  ordina- 
tion. He  was  not  present,  however,  to  preside,  and 
his  name  is  entered  upon  the  Journal  as  a  visiting 
brother.  The  Convention  paid  him  the  compliment 
not  only  of  waiting  upon  him,  by  a  committee,  with 
a  request  that  he  would  take  a  seat  in  the  House,  but 
also  of  asking,  for  publication,  a  copy  of  the  discourse 
which  he  had  delivered  at  the  ordination  held  by 
him  in  the  church  at  Miclclletown.  He  seems  to  have 
regarded  the  Diocese  as  placed  under  his  canonical 
charge,  but  no  trace  of  any  record  to  this  effect  can 
be  found,  and  therefore,  in  the  judgment  of  charity, 
either  the  purport  of  the  invitation  was  misunder- 
stood, or  the  Standing  Committee  overreached  their 
authority,  and  failed  to  comprehend  the  spirit  of  the 
Canon.1  Bishop  Hobart,  upon  a  similar  invitation, 
visited  the  parishes  at  Stratford  and  Trumbull,  in  the 
summer  of  1815,  and  confirmed  one  hundred  and 
sixty  persons. 

A  proposition  was  introduced  at  this  same  Conven- 
tion, to  request  Bishop  Griswold  to  add  Connecticut 
to  his  Episcopal  jurisdiction.     There  was  some  diver- 

1  "  Since  the  last  meeting  of  this  Convention,  being  invited,  according 
to  the  directions  of  the  XXth  Canon,  I  have  visited  some  of  the  churches 
in  Connecticut,  and  confirmed,  in  Middletown,  Hartford,  and  Warehouse 
Point,  one  hundred  and  thirty-one  persons.  I  admitted  Ezekiel  [G.]  Gear 
and  Reuben  Sherwood  to  the  order  of  Deacons ;  and  the  Rev.  Birdsey 
G.  Noble,  Alpheus  Gear,  Harry  Croswell,  and  Aaron  Humphrey,  Deacons, 
were  ordained  Presbyters.  I  have  heard,  though  not  by  any  official  notice 
that  the  churches  in  Connecticut  have  since  placed  themselves  under  the 
care  of  Bishop  Hobart.  The  invitation  previously  given  is  therefore,  no 
doubt,  revoked."  —  Address  to  Convention  of  the  Eastern  Diocese,  Septem- 
ber 25,  1816. 


116  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

sity  of  opinion  and  feeling,  in  regard  to  the  election 
of  a  successor  to  Bishop  Jarvis,  and  those  opposed  to 
going  out  of  the  Diocese  for  a  candidate  were  ready 
to  adopt  any  measure  which  would  keep  alive  their 
hopes,  and  delay  decisive  action  upon  the  important 
question.  Among  the  elder  of  the  Connecticut 
clergy,  several  might  be  found  who  were  not  deficient 
in  many  of  the  best  qualifications  for  the  Episcopal 
office,  but  no  one  combined  in  his  character  all  the 
requisites,  or  stood  sufficiently  prominent  to  secure  a 
respectable  majority  of  the  votes  of  his  brethren. 
The  leading  laity  were  inclined  to  prevent  further 
divisions  and  jealousies  by  selecting  for  the  office 
some  presbyter  of  commanding  talents  and  good 
reputation,  who  had  proved  his  Christian  armor  well 
in  another  Diocese.  The  proposal  to  invite  Bishop 
Griswold  to  take  Connecticut  under  his  charge  was 
overruled,  not  with  any  unkind  or  uncourteous  feel- 
ings towards  him,  but  from  a  belief  that  the  duties  of 
his  already  extensive  Diocese  would  not  permit  him 
to  give  to  the  Church  in  Connecticut  the  services  and 
supervision  which  her  condition  demanded. 

In  these  circumstances  there  appeared  to  be  no 
other  alternative,  and  on  the  second  day  of  the  ses- 
sion, it  was  resolved  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a 
bishop.  The  Convention  divided,  and  the  lay-depu- 
ties withdrew,  and  then,  according  to  the  entry  in  the 
Journal,  the  votes  were  taken  in  the  clerical  order, 
and  being;  counted  "were  as  follows:  Rev.  John 
Croes,  10  ;  scattering,  17  ;  Rev.  John  Croes,  14 ;  scat- 
tering, 13.  The  Rev.  John  Croes  of  New  Brunswick, 
in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  was  declared  to  be  duly 
and  canonically  elected." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  117 

From  this  it  might  be  inferred  that  two  ballots 
only  were  taken,  but  the  record  does  not  tell  the 
whole  story.  There  were  several  ballotings  and  sev- 
eral candidates  from  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese ; 
among  them  Chase  of  Hartford  had  his  little  circle 
of  supporters.  No  one  from  the  first,  however, 
received  a  higher  number  of  votes  than  Mr.  Croes, 
and  the  greatest  disappointment  at  the  final  result 
was  betrayed  by  those  for  whom  the  fewest  were  cast.1 
The  lay-delegates  reported  their  concurrence  in  the 
choice  and  resumed  their  seats  in  the  clerical  body, 
and  a  committee,  consisting  of  Rev.  Messrs.  Shelton, 
A.  Baldwin,  Hon.  S.  W.  Johnson,  and  Burrage  Beach, 
was  appointed  to  "make  a  communication  from  this 
Convention  to  the  Rev.  John  Croes,  D.  D." 

But  Providence  wisely  ordered  that  these  proceed- 
ings should  not  be  consummated ;  for  while  the  com- 
mittee were  in  correspondence  with  the  bishop-elect, 
in  regard  to  his  support,  consecration,  and  removal, 
the  Convention  of  New  Jersey,  which  met  about  two 
months  after  that  of  Connecticut,  elected  him  with 
great  unanimity  to  the  Episcopate  of  that  Diocese. 
New  Jersey  was  his  home,  —  the  place  of  his  birth, 
and  of  his  long  residence  —  and  the  Church  there 
was  the  object  of  his  fond  affection,  for  whose  welfare 
he  had  labored,  and  for  whose  respect  and  confidence 

1  "  The  compiler,"  meaning  the  Secretary  of  the  Convention,  "  prob- 
ably out  of  delicacy,  deemed  it  expedient  to  suppress  the  names  of  the 
other  candidates,  and  sum  them  up  under  the  term  '  scattering.'  How 
far  any  of  these  clergymen  were  willing  to  be  considered  as  candidates,  I 
know  not.  It  was  easy  to  observe,  however,  that  two  at  least  of  the  num- 
ber, and  those  the  candidates  who  had  received  the  smallest  number  of 
votes  recorded  as  '  scattering,'  betrayed  much  disappointment  at  the  re- 
sult. —  Annals  of  Trinity  ParishtMS. 


118  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

he  was  grateful.  Hence  it  was  natural,  with  two 
mitres  before  him,  to  take  the  one  which  would  allow 
him  to  remain  among  his  old  friends,  and  to  decline 
the  other,  which  would  oblige  him,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
three,  to  seek  new  acquaintances  and  a  new  home. 
He  was  therefore  consecrated  Bishop  of  New  Jer- 
sey, on  the  19th  day  of  November,  1815;  and  the 
vacancy  in  the  Episcopate  of  this  Diocese  still  con- 
tinued. 

The  war  of  1812  was  ended,  and  with  peace  came 
unexpected  political  issues  which  were  beginning  to 
shape  the  destiny  of  the  Standing  Order  in  Connecti- 
cut. The  current  towards  the  Episcopal  Church  was 
swelling,  and  the  accession  of  members  to  her  com- 
munion was  not  the  result  of  increased  emigration  to 
the  Diocese ;  but  rather  of  better  acquaintance  with 
the  forms  of  the  Liturgy,  and  of  dissatisfaction  with 
the  management  and  illiberality  of  the  Congregation- 
alists.  It  was  no  sudden  rush  from  the  established 
ecclesiastical  system  into  new  relations ;  but  all  over 
the  State  there  were  signs  of  a  kinder  feeling  on  the 
part  of  individuals  towards  the  Church,  so  that  from 
the  hills  of  Litchfield  to  the  towns  by  the  sea-side, 
she  gathered  her  intelligent  families  and  rejoiced  in 
the  prospect  of  higher  advancement.  In  some  places 
the  old  houses  of  worship  were  improved,  or  com- 
pleted, and  in  others  new  ones  were  projected  to 
meet  the  wishes  of  churchmen,  and  fulfill  their  most 
sanguine  expectations.  More  perfect  statistics,  accord- 
ing to  the  Canon,  were  called  for,  and  the  Convention 
of  1815,  in  a  formal  manner,  declared  it  to  be  the 
duty  of  the  President  to  admonish  all  such  clergymen 
as  neglected,  without  assigning  satisfactory  reasons, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  119 

to  report  the  number  of  their  baptisms,  communi- 
cants, marriages,  and  funerals,  and  generally  any 
matters  that  might  throw  light  upon  the  state  of  their 
parishes.  The  life  indicated  in  these  ways  was  quick- 
ened by  subsequent  events,  and  Episcopalians  became 
a  power  in  the  State,  whose  influence  was  very  per- 
ceptible in  overthrowing  the  ancient  dynasty,  and 
securing  the  adoption  of  a  new  Constitution  for  the 
government  of  the  people. 


120         HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


CHAPTER   IX. 

BISHOP'S   FUND;    CONSECRATION    OF   TRINITY  CHURCH;    SERVICES 
OF  BISHOP  HOBART;   AND  ANNUAL  CONVENTION. 

A.  D.  1815-1816. 

The  fund  to  support  a  bishop  had  been  gradually 
accumulating,  and  several  parishes  had  paid  in  full  or 
in  part  the  Conventional  assessments  for  this  object. 
In  the  spring  of  1814  an  association  of  gentlemen 
petitioned  the  General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  to  in- 
corporate a  new  banking  institution  at  Hartford,  to  be 
called  the  Phoenix  Bank,  and  offered,  "  in  conformity 
to  the  precedents  in  other  States,"  to  pay  for  the 
privilege  of  the  charter  a  certain  per  cent,  upon  the 
capital  stock,  to  be  appropriated,  if  the  Legislature 
should  deem  it  expedient,  partly  to  the  Corporation 
of  Yale  College  for  its  Academical  and  Medical  depart- 
ments, and  partly  to  the  Corporation  of  the  Trustees 
of  the  Bishop's  Fund ;  "  or  to  be  otherwise  disposed  of 
for  the  use  of  the  State."  It  is  unnecessary  to  recite 
the  measures  and  management  which  preceded  the 
charter.  The  bank  was  incorporated  with  a  capital 
of  one  million,  and  five  per  cent,  of  this  amount,  fifty 
thousand  dollars,  went  into  the  Treasury  of  the  State 
to  be  applied  in  pursuance  of  the  conditions  sug- 
gested by  the  petitioners  and  modified  by  the  Legis- 
lature. At  the  same  session  an  act  was  passed  author- 
izing twenty  thousand  dollars  of  the  bonus  to  be  paid 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  121 

out  of  the  first  moneys  received,  to  three  persons  living 
in  New  Haven,  who,  as  trustees,  were  to  expend  and 
appropriate  the  sum  "  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the 
Medical  Institution  of  Yale  College."  The  Upper 
House  or  Senate  originated  a  bill,  distributing  the  re- 
mainder, and  granting  ten  thousand  dollars  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  Bishop's  Fund,  but  although  this  bill 
twice  obtained  the  almost  entire  approval  of  that 
branch  of  the  Legislature,  yet  it  was  repeatedly  re- 
jected in  the  Lower  House,  and  among  other  reasons 
for  the  rejection,  Episcopalians  were  told  that  the 
country  was  then  at  war,  that  the  Treasury  of  the 
State  was  in  want  of  money,  and  that  however  just 
the  claim  might  be,  it  was  inexpedient  to  allow  it  at 
such  a  time.1 

At  the  October  session  of  the  General  Assembly, 
nearly  a  year  after  the  treaty  of  peace,  the  trustees 
again  sent  in  their  memorial  and  spread  their  case 
before  the  consciences  of  the  law-makers,  but  unac- 
countable as  it  may  appear,  the  members  of  the  Upper 
House  now,  with  a  solitary  exception  (Hon.  S.  W. 
Johnson),  completely  changed  their  ground,  and  joined 
the  popular  "branch  in  voting  down  the  very  claim 
which  they  had  hitherto  nursed  and  defended.  The 
grant  to  the  Medical  Institution  had  virtually  estab- 
lished the  principle  on  which  the  distribution  of  the 
bonus  was  to  be  made,  and  the  course  pursued  by  the 
Legislature  was  felt  by  Episcopalians  to  be  a  violation 
of  good  faith  and  a  blow  aimed  at  their  order.  It  was 
in  vain  to  say  that  the  public  funds  of  the  State  ought 
not  to  be  turned  to  the  exclusive  advantage  of  any 
"  religious  sect,"  for  churchmen  claimed    that  on  no 

1  Bishop's  Fund  and  Phoenix  Bonus,  p.  18. 


122  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

such  ground  was  the  appropriation  sought,  but  rather 
because  it  was  a  donation  from  a  set  of  individuals, 
who,  for  the  privilege  of  a  charter,  were  willing  to 
send  their  bounty  in  this  direction.  If  the  allowance 
to  the  Medical  Institution  had  been  withholden,  there 
would  have  been  no  room  for  complaint. 

The  subject  at  the  time  was  the  source  of  much 
irritation  and  a  sharp  controversy  began  and  was  car- 
ried on  in  the  "  Connecticut  Herald,"  a  New  Haven 
paper,  by  parties  who  dipped  their  pens  into  the  his- 
tory of  matters  remotely  connected  with  the  merits 
of  the  question.  The  illiberal  policy  of  Yale  College, 
the  test  oaths  demanded  from  her  officers  of  instruc- 
tion, the  repeated  refusal  of  the  Legislature  to  charter 
another  collegiate  institution,  "  the  Divine  right  of 
Presbyterianism  and  the  Divine  right  of  Episcopacy," 
were  among  the  subjects  discussed  by  these  anony- 
mous laymen  with  peculiar  zeal  and  ability.  The 
pieces  were  afterwards  compiled  and  published  with 
notes  and  additions  in  a  pamphlet  form  by  their  re- 
spective authors :  but  as  neither  party  was  willing  to 
trust  the  other  in  editing  the  matter,  two  separate 
editions  appeared,  one  omitting  personal  invectives 
and  irrelevant  statements;  the  other  professing  to 
"contain  the  whole  controversy  just  as  it  was  given 
warm  from  the  press."  The  compiler  of  the  latter  edi- 
tion was  opposed  to  the  grant  of  ten  thousand  dollars 
to  the  Bishop's  Fund,  and  the  motto  from  Shakespeare, 
set  in  the  title-page  of  his  pamphlet,  was  intended  to 
be  significant :  — 

"  Liberty  plucks  justice  by  the  nose, 
The  baby  beats  the  nurse,  and  quite  athwart 
Goes  all  decorum." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  123 

These  things  occurred  on  the  eve  of  a  memorable 
crisis  in  the  civil  history  of  the  State.  The  Episcopa- 
lians had  already  been  drawn  in  sympathy  to  that 
political  party  which  favored  toleration  and  desired  to 
break  down  the  existing  rule  of  authority,  and  the 
final  rejection  of  their  memorial  by  the  Legislature  was 
one  of  the  spurs  to  their  diligence  in  securing  at  the 
next  "  Freemen's  Meeting,"  the  election  of  Jonathan 
Ingersoll,  a  warden  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  to 
the  position  of  Lieutenant  Governor.  It  was  the  first 
interruption  in  the  chain  of  Puritan  succession  to  that 
high  and  honorable  office,  and  was  important  mainly 
as  being  a  forerunner  of  the  more  complete  victory  to 
be  achieved  by  the  same  political  party  at  the  next 
annual  election.  A  notice  of  the  new  issues  and 
changes  in  the  legislation  of  the  State  will  fall  very 
properly  under  the  head  of  a  subsequent  chapter. 

But  the  Bishop's  Fund  was  increased  in  a  way 
wholly  unexpected  when  the  assessment  upon  the 
parishes  was  made,  or  the  Phoenix  Bank  charter  solic- 
ited. The  State  had  received  from  the  General  Gov- 
ernment, to  reimburse  it  for  expenses  incurred  in  the 
late  war  with  Great  Britain,  sixty-one  thousand  five 
hundred  dollars,  and  the  Legislature,  a  majority  of 
whose  members  still  favored  the  party  which  had 
been  in  power  since  the  Revolution,  passed  an  act  in 
1816,  appropriating  the  money  to  the  different  relig- 
ious denominations,  then  commonly  classed  under 
three  heads,  —  the  Congregationalists  or  Standing 
Order,  the  Episcopalians,  and  the  minor  sects.  The 
measure  was  an  unpopular  one,  and  the  Methodists 
and  Baptists  spurned  the  share  which  fell  to  them  in 
the  division.     But  Nathan  Smith,  of  New  Haven,  an 


124  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

eminent  lawyer  and  a  sagacious  manager,  saw  at  once 
that  this  was  a  good  opportunity  to  increase  the 
Episcopal  Fund,  of  which  he  was  a  trustee,  and  he 
immediately  put  in  operation  a  plan  to  accomplish  his 
object.  One  seventh  part  of  the  whole  amount  thus 
went  into  the  treasury  of  the  "  Trustees  for  receiving 
donations  for  the  support  of  a  Bishop,"  and  was  in- 
vested in  bank  stocks.  And  here  it  may  be  men- 
tioned, though  a  little  in  anticipation  of  the  order  of 
events,  that  the  claim  upon  the  Phoenix  Bonus  was 
not  on  this  account  relinquished.  The  trustees  re- 
newed their  petition  to  the  General  Assembly  at  its 
May  session  in  1820,  for  "  a  sum  of  money,"  to  quote 
their  own  words,  "  heretofore  paid  to  the  Treasurer  of 
the  State  by  the  President  and  Directors  of  the  Phoenix 
Bank  for  the  use  of  the  petitioners."  They  accepted, 
in  answer  to  the  prayer  of  their  memorial  and  in  com- 
mutation of  the  claim,  the  grant  of  a  lottery,  and  the 
trustees  met  on  the  5th  day  of  the  ensuing  June,  and 
assigned  the  grant  to  other  parties,  from  whom  they 
ultimately  obtained  for  the  corporation  $7,064.88. 
In  their  corporate  capacity,  they  had  no  hesitation  to 
accept  such  kind  of  liberality  from  the  State,  because 
the  propriety  of  lotteries  was  not  then  questioned, 
and  the  character  of  the  Phoenix  Bank  Bonus,  closely 
analyzed,  might  not  rise  much  above  the  same  class 
of  public  moralities. 

The  close  of  the  year  1815  saw  the  spacious  Gothic 
church  for  Trinity  Parish,  New  Haven,  completed  and 
opened  for  services.  The  neighboring  edifices  of  the 
two  Congregational  Societies  had  both  been  dedicated 
and  occupied,  and  public  attention  was  now  turned  to 
the  consecration  of  this  and  to  the  imposing  ceremo- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  125 

nies  to  be  witnessed  on  that  occasion.  Many  persons, 
while  the  building  was  in  progress,  had  indicated  their 
purpose  to  attach  themselves  in  due  form  to  the  Epis- 
copal Society,  and  at  the  leasing  of  the  pews  which 
took  place  twelve  clays  before  the  festival  of  the  Na- 
tivity, there  was  a  large  accession  of  families,  and  such 
was  the  demand  for  seats  that  "  the  rents  amounted 
to  an  annual  interest  of  six  per  cent  on  about  sixty 
thousand  dollars,  being  nearly  double  the  whole  cost 
of  the  church,  including  organ,  bell,  and  other  furni- 
ture." *  The  leasing  was  for  a  period  of  five  years  from 
the  first  of  January,  1816,  and  in  this  arrangement 
deference  was  paid  to  the  old  system  of  individual 
proprietorship,  while  the  way  was  prepared  for  the 
policy  of  annual  renting  which  now  prevails  in  all 
the  parishes  of  the  Diocese. 

The  day  fixed  upon  for  the  consecration  was 
Wednesday,  the  21st  of  February,  1816,  and  the  elo- 
quent and  energetic  Hobart,  then  Bishop  of  New  York, 
was  present  by  special  invitation  to  officiate  in  the  ser- 
vices, and  preach  the  sermon.  Churchmen  from  the 
adjoining  towns  and  nearly  all  the  clergy  of  the  Dio- 
cese were  drawn  to  New  Haven  on  this  occasion,  and 
not  only  were  the  sittings  in  the  vast  building  com- 
pactly occupied,  but  the  aisles  and  galleries  were 
literally  crowded  with  standing  auditors,  so  that  the 
whole  number  was  estimated  to  be  not  less  than  three 
thousand.  At  the  conclusion  of  the  grand  and  im- 
pressive services,  the  venerable  Dr.  Mansfield,  the 
senior  among  the  clergy,  and  in  the  ninety-third  year 
of  his  age,  exclaimed  in  amazement  to  the  Rector  of 
Trinity,  as  he  cast  his  eyes  upon  the  slowly  retiring 

1  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

multitude  :  "  I  can  remember  when  there  were  but  two 
or  three  Church  families  of  reputation  in  all  New 
Haven,  the  rest  were  of  no  great  account." 

The  church,  built  of  stone  obtained  from  West 
Rock  in  the  vicinity,  was,  at  that  date,  the  largest 
structure  of  the  kind,  in  New  England,  and  for  simple 
elegance  and  architectural  design  was  perhaps  unsur- 
passed by  any  in  the  whole  country.  The  original 
drawings  provided  for  an  apsidal  chancel,  with  a  con- 
venient vestry-room,  but  such  an  addition  was  in  ad- 
vance of  the  times  and  offensive  to  Puritan  prejudice, 
and  the  building  committee  unwisely  consented  to  its 
omission  —  an  omission  which  impaired  the  sym- 
metry of  the  edifice,  and  no  subsequent  attempt  to 
supply  it  has  been  successful.  The  sermon  of 
Bishop  Hobart  at  the  consecration  was  published  by 
the  request  of  the  vestry,  and  the  following  para- 
graph deserves  to  be  quoted  :  "  The  style  of  architec- 
ture in  the  edifice  which  has  been  raised  by  your 
zealous  exertions,  carries  back  the  contemplative 
observer  to  that  remote  period,  when,  according  to 
a  theory  which  seems  to  have  some  foundation  in 
nature,  the  sacred  groves  in  their  stillness  and  gloom 
cherishing  the  devout  affections,  their  lofty  trees 
shooting  up  into  slender  summits,  and  their  branches 
interlacing  in  irregular  and  pointed  arches,  suggested, 
for  the  purposes  of  worship,  the  Gothic  temple.  The 
design  was  worthy  of  your  taste ;  its  execution  is 
honorable  to  your  munificence.  May  this  temple 
prove  to  you,  to  your  children,  and  to  your  children's 
children,  the  house  of  God,  and  the  gate  of  Heaven. 
Accept,  on  an  occasion  that  consecrates  to  the  God  of 
your  fathers  an  edifice  not  unworthy  of  those  exalted 


IK   CONNECTICUT.  127 

services  which  you  are  to  offer  in  it,  my  liveliest  con- 
gratulations." * 

On  the  day  after  the  consecration,  another  service 
was  held  in  the  church,  not  so  attractive  to  the  mul- 
titude, but  quite  as  interesting  and  important  to  the 
parties  immediately  concerned.  The  Bishop  officiated 
at  the  institution  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Croswell  into  the 
Rectorship  of  the  parish  ;  but  the  sermon  on  this 
occasion  was  preached  by  the  Rev.  Philander  Chase 
of  Hartford. 

Still  the  spiritual  feast  continued,  and  on  the  third 
day,  an  immense  concourse  of  people  assembled  to 
participate  in  the  services  and  to  witness  the  recep- 
tion of  the  rite  of  Confirmation  by  one  hundred  and 
seven  candidates.  That  large  class  was  chiefly  com- 
posed of  persons  of  mature  age,  some  of  whom  had 
been  waiting  during  the  vacancy  in  the  Episcopate, 
for  an  opportunity  to  ratify  their  baptismal  engage- 
ments, and  others  had  but  recently  come  out  of  Con- 
gregationalism and  conformed  to  the  Church.  It  was 
a  most  affecting  spectacle,  and  Bishop  Hobart  seemed 
to  catch  a  new  inspiration  from  it,  and  to  address  the 

1  The  architect  was  Mr.  Ithiel  Town,  and  in  a  description  of  the  building 
by  himself,  appended  to  the  sermon,  he  thus  speaks  of  a  portion  of  the  in- 
terior :  "  The  pulpit  and  canopy  are  constructed  like  those  in  the  Cathe- 
dral at  York,  in  England,  and  are  richly  ornamented.  The  ornaments  of 
the  ceiling  are  also  similar  to  those  in  that  Cathedral.  The  chancel  floor  is 
elevated  three  steps,  and  enclosed  by  a  mahogany  railing,  with  suitable 
ornament  work  under  it.  The  altar  is  composed  of  the  imitation  of  eight 
large  books,  relating  to  the  government  and  worship  of  the  Church,  two  of 
which,  in  front,  are  open  ;  the  idea  is  a  very  interesting  one,  and  the  exe- 
cution of  their  painting  is  masterly.  The  front  of  the  galleries,  the  reading 
desk,  architraves  of  the  doors  and  windows,  etc.,  are  finished  in  a  corre- 
sponding style  with  the  other  parts.  The  slips  are  capped  with  mahogany, 
and  painted  dead  white,  as  are  also  the  front  of  the  gallery,  columns,  pul- 
pit and  other  inside  work."  (page  29.) 


128  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

candidates  and  the  people  with  more  than  his  usual 
unction,  eloquence,  and  impressiveness. 

When  all  was  over  and  he  was  about  to  take  his 
departure  from  New  Haven,  two  gentlemen,  deputed 
by  the  vestry,  waited  upon  him  and  presented  him 
with  a  purse  of  gold  as  a  suitable  remuneration  for 
his  expenses  and  services.  He  accepted  the  handsome 
gratuity  only  with  the  understanding  that  he  might 
appropriate  it  to  the  benefit  of  an  eccentric,  yet  ven- 
erable and  retired  clergyman,1  long  resident  in  the 
Diocese,  whose  fortune  it  had  been,  like  that  of  many 
others,  to  gather  more  learning  than  money,  and  to 
be  in  straits,  when  he  ought  to  have  had  abundance. 
After  reaching  New  York,  he  wrote  again  to  one  of 
these  gentlemen,  and  referring  to  the  fact  that  he 
had  lodged  the  gift  of  the  vestry  "  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Shelton,  at  Bridgeport,  for  Dr.  Smith's  use,"  he 
added,  "  My  visit  to  Connecticut  was  a  delightful  one, 
spiritually  and  socially  delightful,  and  in  the  gratifi- 
cation which  I  received  I  am  more  than  repaid  for 
any  services  which  I  have  rendered."  2 

Large  as  was  the  class  of  candidates  at  New  Haven, 
the  Bishop  confirmed,  in  the  same  week,  a  larger 
number  at  Cheshire,  and  fifty-four  in  St.  John's 
Church,  Bridgeport.  He  was  himself  surprised  at  the 
interest  which  his  visit  awakened,  and  more  than  ever 
impressed  with  the  life  and  power  of  the  Church  in 
Connecticut.  On  all  occasions  when  the  audiences 
were  filled  in  with  Congreo-ationalists  and  members  of 
"  the  minor  sects,"  he  loved  to  present  our  services  in 
their  best  and  most  pleasing  attire,  and  nothing  on 
his  part  was  omitted  which  might  serve  to  produce  a 

1  Rev.  Wm.  Smith,  D.  D.  2  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


m  CONNECTICUT.  129 

favorable  impression  of  the  dignity  and  importance  of 
his  office.  He  was  taken  from  New  Haven  to  Cheshire 
in  the  private  carriage  of  a  legal  gentleman,  at  that 
time  prominent  in  the  councils  of  the  Diocesan  and 
General  conventions  ;  and  not  much  of  the  journey 
had  been  travelled  before  the  Bishop  suddenly  dis- 
covered that  the  valise  which  contained  his  Episcopal 
robes  was  left  behind.  He  suggested  whether  it 
would  not  be  worth  while  to  return  for  it,  but  the 
gentleman  said  he  did  not  think  it  important,  inas- 
much as  there  would  be  only  a  few  candidates  for 
Confirmation  and  probably  a  small  attendance.  In 
this  way  his  regret  of  the  oversight  was  soothed,  and 
they  rode  on  and  reached  the  village ;  and  at  the 
appointed  hour  of  service,  the  Bishop  proceeded  to 
the  church.  The  Rector  was  there  to  welcome  him, 
and  throngs  of  people,  such  as  the  old  sanctuary  had 
seldom  received  before,  were  pressing  to  its  portals. 
When  the  prayers  and  sermon  were  ended,  the  candi- 
dates were  called  for,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty, 
more  than  one  fourth  of  the  whole  congregation,  rose 
and  advanced  towards  the  chancel.  The  sensibilities 
of  the  Bishop  were  excited,  but  he  went  through  the 
remaining  services  with  his  wonted  animation,  and  at 
their  close  cordially  congratulated  the  Rector  on  the 
prosperity  of  his  parish.  Coming  outside  of  the 
church  he  fell  in  with  his  legal  friend,  and  said  to 
him  very  energetically  and  somewhat  reprovingly: 
"  Do  you  call  this  a  small  number  of  candidates  ? 
How  mortified  I  am,  that  I  should  appear  before  such 
a  congregation  and  in  such  a  service  without  my 
official  robes  ?  " 

The  accessions  to  the  Church  at  this  period  were 

VOL.    II.  9 


130  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

stimulated  both  by  religious  revivals  and  the  feverish 
state  of  public  opinion.  Some  driftwood  of  course 
came  in,  which  was  afterwards  found  to  be  worthless, 
but  the  Episcopal  clergy  watched  all  the  changes  that 
were  going  on,  and  with  a  few  exceptions,  stood  at 
their  posts  like  men  who  remembered  that  they  must 
give  an  account.  It  was  yet  a  fashion  common  to  the 
people  of  Connecticut  to  frequent  the  house  of  public 
worship.  The  custom  of  their  forefathers  and  the 
reverence  for  a  Christian  life  required  this  ;  and  the 
clergy,  who  were  pastors  as  well  as  preachers,  helped 
to  keep  it  up  by  personal  appeals  and  by  familiar  inter- 
course with  their  parishioners.  The  towns  were  not 
so  populous,  the  habits  of  social  life  were  not  so  con- 
strained and  artificial,  and  the  movements  of  men 
were  not  so  rapid,  as  to  make  it  difficult  to  find  them 
in  their  homes  and  know  their  views  of  Christian 
truth  and  duty.1 

On  the  5th  day  of  June,  1816,  the  Annual  Conven- 
tion of  the  Diocese  was  held  in  Trinity  Church,  New 
Haven,  when  thirty-two  clergymen  and  thirty-nine 
lay-delegates,  representing  thirty-six  parishes,  at- 
tended.    The  Rev.  Jonathan  Judcl,  at  that  time  Rec- 

1 "  In  the  year  1816,  New  Haven  contained  about  seven  thousand  inhab- 
itants. The  distances  from  the  centre  of  the  city  to  any  point  of  its  circum- 
ference were  short,  and  it  was  easy  for  a  clergyman  to  ascertain  the 
ecclesiastical  relations  of  the  people,  and  to  discover  families  as  well  as 
individuals  who  did  not  consider  themselves  attached  to  any  religious  society 
or  church.  Both  public  opinion  and  statute  law  moreover,  may  be  said 
then  almost  to  have  forced  every  one  into  some  sort  of  connection  with  a 
professedly  Christian  congregation." — Rev.  Dr.  Harwood's  Semi-Centennial 
Sermon,  1866,  p.  9. 

The  law  was  still  in  force  which  empowered  the  "  Standing  Order  "  to 
collect  for  its  support  a  tax  from  every  citizen  not  duly  enrolled  in  another 
denomination. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  131 

tor  of  St.  John's  Church,  Stamford,  preached  the 
sermon,  and  the  Rev.  Philo  Shelton,  the  senior  pres- 
byter present,  presided  agreeably  to  the  Constitution, 
as  he  had  done  at  all  the  conventions  since  the  death 
of  Bishop  Jarvis.  An  effort  was  again  made  to  obtain 
a  charter  for  an  "  Episcopal  College  to  be  erected  in 
this  Diocese,"  and  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Chase  and  Bur- 
hans,  Charles  Sigourney,  Asa  Chapman  and  Nathan 
Smith,  were  appointed  a  committee  to  prefer  a  peti- 
tion in  the  name  and  behalf  of  the  Convention,  to  the 
General  Assembly  at  the  next  October  session, "  pro- 
vided they  should  think  it  expedient."  The  powers 
of  the  committee  were  continued  for  two  succeeding 
years,  and  then  the  memorial  was  withholden  for  a 
time,  while  other  objects  of  more  immediate  interest 
engrossed  the  attention  of  the  Church. 

It  was  impossible  for  the  clergy  and  laity  to  come 
together  in  council  at  that  season,  without  discussing 
the  question  of  the  Episcopate.  So  long  had  it  been 
under  consideration  that  some  really  wished  it  finally 
disposed  of;  but  the  influence  of  the  larger  parishes 
prevailed,  and  it  was  resolved  to  be  inexpedient  to 
proceed  to  the  election  of  a  bishop.  In  this  vote  re- 
gard was  had  to  a  temporary  provision.  The  late  visit 
of  Bishop  Hobart  to  Connecticut  was  before  the  minds 
of  the  clergy  like  an  enchanting  picture,  and  the  prop- 
osition to  call  in  his  assistance  had  only  to  be  mentioned 
to  meet  with  general  favor.  It  was  "  resolved  unani- 
mously, that  an  invitation  be  given  to  the  Right  Rev. 
John  Henry  Hobart,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  to  visit  and  perforin  the  Episcopal 
offices  in  this  Diocese,  according  to  the  XXth  Canon 
of  this  Church;"  and  two  clergymen  and  two  laymen 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

were  authorized  to  tender  him  the  invitation,  and,  on 
his  accepting  the  trust,  to  stipulate  to  pay  him  a  suit- 
able compensation  for  his  services.  This  was  alto- 
gether unlike  in  character  the  resolution  which  au- 
thorized the  Standing  Committee  to  solicit,  as  occasion 
required,  the  services  of  "  any  Bishop  in  the  United 
States."  It  put  the  whole  Church  in  Connecticut 
under  the  charge  of  a  provisional  Diocesan. 


m  CONNECTICUT.  133 


CHAPTER  X. 

SPECIAL  CONVENTION,  AND  VISITATION  OF  BISHOP  HOBART;  DOC- 
TRINAL CONTROVERSY;  AND  STANDARD  EDITION  OF  THE  BIBLE. 

A.    D.    1816-1817. 

Bishop  Hobart  consented  to  take  the  Diocese  un- 
der his  Episcopal  oversight,  and  a  Special  Convention 
was  held  in  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  on  the  16th 
day  of  October,  for  the  purpose  of  completing  the 
arrangement.  Twenty-four  clergymen,  entitled  to 
seats,  and  thirty-two  lay-delegates  were  present.  The 
Bishop  preached  the  sermon  and  admitted  to  the 
Priesthood  the  Rev.  William  Cranston  from  Savan- 
nah, Georgia. 

In  his  communication  to  the  Convention,  he 
quoted  the  resolution  adopted  at  the  annual  meeting 
in  June,  and  then  said ;  "  I  have  considered  it  of  so 
much  importance  that  the  respectable  and  important 
Diocese  of  Connecticut,  which  has  supplied  the 
Church  in  other  States,  and  particularly  the  State  of 
New  York,  with  many  most  useful  clergymen  and 
lay  members,  should  be  furnished  in  its  present  ex- 
igencies with  the  regular  exercise  of  Episcopal  func- 
tions, that  I  have  deemed  it  my  duty  to  accept  the 
invitation  contained  in  the  above  resolution  of  your 
body,  sanctioned  as  this  resolution  is  by  a  Canon  of 
the  Church.     In  conformity,  therefore,  with  the  XXth 


134  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Canon  of  the  General  Convention,  I  do  hereby  con- 
sent to  exercise  the  Episcopal  offices  in  the  Diocese 
of  Connecticut,  agreeably  to  the  Constitution  and 
Canons  of  the  Church." 

The  Convention,  in  a  formal  manner,  accepted  the 
terms,  resolved  unanimously  to  acknowledge  him  as 
the  "  Bishop  of  this  Diocese  "  and  through  a  commit- 
tee, communicated  a  copy  of  the  resolution  which 
had  been  adopted.  Not  to  be  misunderstood,  he 
wrote  in  reply :  "  I  deem  it  proper  to  observe,  that, 
agreeably  to  the  invitation  to  me,  contained  in  your 
resolution,  at  your  session  in  June  last,  and  to  the 
sentiments  expressed  in  my  former  communication  to 
you,  I  can  consider  myself  as  Bishop  of  the  Diocese 
of  Connecticut,  only  according  to  the  tenor  of  the 
XXth  Canon  of  the  Church.  And  on  this  view  of  the 
subject,  I  conclude  your  resolution  of  yesterday  was 
founded.  Permit  me  further  to  remark  that,  while  it 
will  be  my  duty,  in  conformity  with  that  Canon,  to 
bestow  as  much  attention  on  the  Diocese  of  Connecti- 
cut as  shall  be  compatible  with  the  paramount  charge 
of  the  Diocese  of  New  York,  I  shall  be  exceedingly 
gratified  when,  a  bishop  being  elected  and  conse- 
crated for  your  Church,  my  Episcopal  charge  of  it, 
according  to  the  Canons,  will  be  no  longer  necessary." 

He  commenced  a  visitation  immediately  after  the 
close  of  the  Convention,  and  passed  from  New  Haven 
to  Meriden  where,  on  the  18th,  he  consecrated  St. 
Andrew's  Church,  and  confirmed  thirty-eight  persons. 
The  next  day,  he  crossed  over  to  Southington  and 
confirmed  twenty -seven,  and  continued  his  journey  to 
Waterbury,  where  he  spent  the  Sunday.  At  that 
period,  there  were   no  railroads;    and     the   passage 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  135 

from  one  place  to  another  was  necessarily  accom- 
plished in  stage-coaches  and  private  conveyances. 
Peculiar  interest  and  attraction  marked  the  services 
in  Waterbury.  Not  since  Seabury  made  his  first  visi- 
tation to  the  same  parish  thirty  years  before,  and 
confirmed  two  hundred  and  fifty-six  candidates,  had 
so  large  a  class  been  presented  in  this  Diocese,  or  per- 
haps in  this  country,  for  the  Apostolic  rite.  It  num- 
bered two  hundred  and  twenty-six,  and  exceeded  any 
single  class  which  afterwards  came  before  Bishop  Ho- 
bart.  The  candidates  were  parishioners  from  the  whole 
cure  of  the  Rector,  which  then  embraced  the  congre- 
gation in  Salem,  now  Naugatuck.  On  Monday,  the 
Bishop  proceeded  to  Oxford,  consecrated  St.  Peter's 
Church,  and  confirmed  seventy-four  persons.  Wood- 
bury, Watertown,  Plymouth,  and  Litchfield  were  suc- 
cessively visited,  and  some  congregations  within  the 
limits  of  his  own  State  also.  On  his  return  to  the 
city  of  New  York,  he  descended  the  valley  of  the 
Housatonic  and  took  on  his  way  New  Milford,  Brook- 
field,  Ripton,  New  Stratford  and  Newtown.  At  St. 
Paul's  Church,  Norwalk,  he  held  another  Confirmation 
on  the  4th  of  November,  and  admitted  at  the  same 
time  the  Rector,  Rev.  Reuben  Sherwood,  to  the  order 
of  the  Priesthood. 

The  total  number  of  persons  confirmed  in  Con- 
necticut, during  this  visitation,  which  occupied  less 
than  three  weeks,  was  eleven  hundred  and  fifty-eight. 
The  interest  attending  the  progress  of  the  Bishop 
was  surprising.  He  won  the  admiration  of  all  by  the 
charms  of  his  eloquence,  and  churchmen,  not  content 
with  a  single  service,  followed  him  to  the  adjacent 
towns,  and  seemed  never  satisfied  with  listening  to 


136  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  tones  of  his  voice.  In  his  address  to  the  Annual 
Convention  the  next  year,  he  noticed  these  official 
acts,  and  said,  "  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  express  the  high 
gratification  which  I  received  in  my  visitation  of  the 
Diocese,  not  only  from  the  efforts  of  both  the  clergy 
and  the  laity  to  make  my  stay  among  them  person- 
ally agreeable,  but  principally  from  the  evidence 
which  I  received  of  the  flourishing  state  of  the 
churches  which  I  visited.  The  services,  though  gen- 
erally on  week-days,  were  attended  by  numerous 
congregations.  The  order  and  the  solemnity  with 
which  divine  worship  was  celebrated,  have  not  been 
exceeded  by  any  congregations  in  which  I  ever  offici- 
ated ;  and  may,  I  trust,  be  considered  as  an  evidence 
that  the  affections  of  the  people  were  engaged  in  the 
sacred  exercises  in  which,  with  so  much  impressive 
reverence  and  decorum,  they  united.  The  numbers 
confirmed  in  the  respective  churches  were  unusually 
great  on  these  occasions.  The  highly  gratifying  spec- 
tacle was  exhibited  of  a  collection  of  young  people, 
principally  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  twenty, 
solemnly  assuming  their  Christian  obligations,  and 
presenting  themselves  before  God  for  his  favor  and 
blessing. 

"I  was  happy  to  find  also  that  this  was  not  the  im- 
pulse of  the  moment.  The  persons  who  were  con- 
firmed had  previously  been  visited  by  their  respective 
pastors,  excited  to  take  upon  them  their  baptismal 
engagements,  instructed  in  the  nature  of  the  obliga- 
tions which  they  were  to  assume,  and  prepared  for 
receiving  with  an  enlightened,  fervent,  yet  sober  faith 
and  devotion,  the  Apostolic  laying  on  of  hands.  I 
could  not  resist  the  conviction  which  I  have  since 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  137 

repeatedly  expressed,  excited  by  this  circumstance, 
and  justified  by  all  the  information  I  have  obtained, 
of  the  laborious  and  faithful  zeal  of  the  clergy,  in 
their  pastoral  and  parochial  duties." 

While  candidates  were  thus  publicly  and  privately 
instructed  by  their  pastors,  it  is  evident  that  they 
were  not  all  expected  to  become  immediate  partakers 
of  the  Lord's  Supper.  In  that  day  more  than  in  this, 
Confirmation  was  regarded  as  a  rite  which,  in  one 
sense,  was  to  release  parents  and  sponsors  from  the 
solemn  engagements  into  which  they  had  entered  at 
the  time  of  the  baptism  of  their  children.  It  was  in- 
deed the  commencement  of  a  new  and  better  life 
with  the  individual, —  his  voluntary  assumption  of 
religious  obligations,  —  the  first  public  confession  be- 
fore the  world  that  he  had  chosen  the  Lord,  to  serve 
Him,  but  it  was  not  understood  to  be  presently  fol- 
lowed by  strengthening  and  refreshing  the  soul  with 
Eucharistical  food.  The  approach  to  the  Communion 
was  a  holier  step  that  often  lay  quite  in  the  future, 
and  for  this  another  preparation  was  generally  to  be 
made.  For  instance,  the  very  next  year  after  the 
large  Confirmation  in  St.  John's  Church,  Waterbury, 
the  Rector,  in  his  parochial  report,  stated  the  total 
number  of  his  communicants  to  be  one  hundred  and 
fifty-nine,  —  new  communicants  thirty-one  ;  and  in  St. 
Paul's  Church,  Norwalk,  where  one  hundred  and  three 
persons  were  confirmed  on  the  same  visitation,  the 
corresponding  statistics  gave  a  total  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty-two  communicants,  and  fourteen  additions. 
Undoubtedly  many  of  the  candidates  had  been  pre- 
viously enrolled  under  the  rubric  which  allows  the  ad- 
mission to  the    Holy  Communion  of  those  who  are 


138  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

"ready  and  desirous  to  be  confirmed."  Very  few  of 
the  parishes  had  been  favored  with  an  Episcopal  visi- 
tation for  a  long  time,  and  as,  before  the  Revolution, 
they  had  learned  to  do  without  that  rite  which,  in  the 
order  of  the  Church,  forms  a  connecting  link  between 
Baptism  and  the  Lord's  Supper ;  so  now  the  law  of 
necessity  had  governed  the  clergy,  and  compelled 
them  to  enroll  persons  as  communicants  without 
knowing  when  they  would  have  an  opportunity  of 
welcoming  the  presence  of  a  bishop. 

The  Christian  education  of  children,  however,  at 
that  period  was  by  no  means  neglected.  They  were 
nurtured  in  the  love  of  obedience  to  the  divine  com- 
mandments, and  of  lowly  and  reverent  respect  towards 
"all  their  betters."  The  day  of  Sunday- schools  in 
this  country  was  just  beginning  to  dawn,  and  parents 
had  not  yet  learned  to  turn  over  to  the  operation  of 
this  agency  any  portion  of  their  own  responsibilities 
and  duties.  Under  the  influence  of  domestic  train- 
ing and  faithful  catechetical  instruction,  children  were 
prepared,  as  they  reached  the  years  of  discretion,  to 
enter  on  the  Christian  life,  and  to  become,  through 
the  exercise  of  faith  and  the  renovation  of  the  soul, 
"  heirs  of  the  kingdom  which  God  hath  promised 
to  them  that  love  Him."  By  some  of  the  parochial 
clergy  great  diligence  was  used  in  teaching  the 
young  the  government  of  the  Church,  and  the  mean- 
ing of  her  services.  In  self-defence,  they  explained 
her  doctrines,  and  sought  to  promote  a  spirit  of  re- 
ligious inquiry,  and  of  rational  and  pious  devotion. 
They  threw  around  their  teachings  fresh  and  happy 
illustrations,  and  if  they  were  not  aided  in  their  work 
•by  a  prolific  press,  they  were  not  hindered  by  its  con- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  139 

tinual  sensations    and  rapid  reproduction  of  an  un- 
christian literature. 

In  1816,  a  revival  prevailed  in  some  parts  of  Con- 
necticut, which  was  attended  with  the  usual  excite- 
ments and  extraordinary  awakenings.  It  was  con- 
ducted by  ministers  of  the  "  Standing  Order,"  and 
novel  and  alarming  representations  were  made  to 
excite  the  fears  and  arrest  the  attention  of  the  young. 
In  several  places,  schools  and  academies  were  visited 
and  the  students  addressed  in  a  pathetic  manner,  and 
not  unfrequently  in  language  which  neither  the  word 
of  God  nor  the  judgment  of  charity  would  sanction. 
The  nature  of  conversion  and  of  regeneration  was 
taught  in  a  way  which  reflected  upon  the  Episcopal 
Church  and  set  inquirers  to  examining  her  doctrines 
and  standards  and  comparing  them  with  Scripture. 
The  result  was  an  increased  attendance  upon  her 
worship,  and  many  who  before  had  believed  that  she 
was  a  teacher  of  bare  morality  and  encouraged  her 
members  to  expect  salvation  by  their  works  only, 
were  led  to  change  their  opinions,  to  relinquish  their 
old  associations,  and  eventually  to  connect  themselves 
with  her  communion. 

The  Episcopal  clergy  wisely  confined  themselves  to 
their  parochial  duties  and  seldom  took  any  notice  of 
the  revival,  except  in  cases  where  it  was  necessary  to 
instruct  their  parishioners  and  guide  the  minds  of 
honest  inquirers.  But  the  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner,  of 
Huntington,  who  held  the  pen  of  a  ready  writer,  and 
was  rather  fond  of  controversy,  published  "  A  Disser- 
tation upon  Extraordinary  Awakenings  or  Religious 
Stirs,"  in  which  he  enlarged  upon  conversion,  regener- 
ation, conference  meetings,  and  topics  of  a  kindred 


140  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHUECH 

nature,  growing  out  of  the  religious  excitement  of 
the  times.  The  publication  was  issued  on  his  own 
individual  responsibility  and  without  any  encourage- 
ment on  the  part  of  his  clerical  brethren.  He  de- 
scribed quite  graphically  the  theory  of  revivals,  and 
reviewed  concisely  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  in 
whose  defence  he  had  not  yet  learned  to  falter. 
"  With  respect  to  extraordinary  awakenings  or  relig- 
ious stirs,"  said  he,  "  in  the  ideas  which  appear  to  be 
generally  entertained  of  them,  and  in  the  manner  in 
which  they  are  usually  carried  on,  the  Episcopal 
Church  knows  but  little  about  them.  She  has  her 
ancient  landmarks  and  rules,  from  which  neither  her 
clergy  nor  people  are  allowed  to  deviate.  No  pre- 
tences to  immediate  inspiration,  —  no  extraordinary 
zeal  or  religious  fervor,  are  supposed  to  supersede 
their  utility,  or  cancel  the  obligation  to  adhere  to 
them.  Order  is  her  first  law  ;  with  which,  from  Scrip- 
ture, as  well  as  from  long  experience,  she  is  convinced 
her  Redeemer  is  well  pleased.  Neither  the  convul- 
sions of  nations,  the  revolutions  of  governments,  nor 
the  ravings  of  fanaticism,  have  prevailed  on  her  to 
depart  from  her  well  regulated  forms  and  offices  of 
devotion,  the  pride  of  her  children  and  the  admira- 
tion of  strangers.  With  an  even  tenor,  she  pursues 
her  course  through  this  inconstant  and  changing 
wrorld,  marking  the  footsteps  of  her  Saviour,  and 
tracing  his  bright  example,  from  the  manger  which 
first  received  his  infant  body,  to  the  right  hand  of  the 
Eternal  Father,  where  he  ever  lives,  her  glorious 
Advocate  and  Intercessor/' 1 

All  this  was  very  true,  and  much  more  that  might 

1  Dissertation,  pp.  20-21. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  141 

be  quoted  ;  but  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  Connecticut 
would  have  preferred  that  the  pamphlet  had  not  been 
published.  It  was  no  help  to  them  in  their  ministra- 
tions ;  and  the  laity  did  not  care  to  see  or  read  any- 
thing which  appeared  like  an  attack  upon  the  revival 
system,  from  the  side  of  the  Church.  So  long  as  the 
Congregational  ministers  confined  their  labors  to  their 
own  flocks  and  refrained  from  printing  any  distortions 
or  misrepresentations  of  personal  religion  as  exempli- 
fied in  our  communion,  Episcopalians  were  content. 
They  knew  that  the  clean  page  of  a  good  life  was 
better  than  a  whole  volume  of  metaphysical  divinity, 
and  in  this  conviction  they  were  willing  to  rest. 
They  would  leave  the  Prayer  Book  to  interpret  itself, 
and  the  Church  to  speak  her  own  praises  in  opening 
a  door  of  refuge  for  those  who  were  ready  to  escape 
from  the  atmosphere  of  a  rigid  Calvinism. 

Mr.  Rayner,  by  the  publication  of  his  pamphlet, 
courted  a  battle,  which  he  was  obliged  to  fight  almost 
alone.  He  was  an  unrelenting  foe  to  Calvinistic 
theology,  to  fore-ordination,  unconditional  election 
and  reprobation,  and  those  doctrines  which  are  neces- 
sarily connected  with  them,  namely,  a  partial 
atonement,  irresistible  grace,  and  the  final  persever- 
ance of  the  saints.  His  quick  wit  and  extensive  read- 
ing supplied  the  deficiencies  of  early  education,  and 
he  became  a  subtle  and  fearless  polemic,  who  rarely 
omitted  an  opportunity  of  exposing  what  he  conceived 
to  be  heresy  and  false  doctrine.  In  1816,  the  Rev. 
Nathaniel  W.  Taylor,  pastor  of  the  First  Ecclesiastical 
Society  in  New  Haven,  was  beginning  to  make  for 
himself  the  broad  reputation  which  his  talents  and 
peculiar  theological  views  afterwards  established.     In 


142  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

that  year,  he  preached  and  published  a  sermon,  en- 
titled, "  Regeneration,  the  Beginning  of  Holiness  in  the 
Human  Heart,"  which  with  some  imperfect  extracts 
from  the  writings  of  Bishop  Hobart,  whose  recent  visit 
to  New  Haven  was  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people, 
contained  an  ingenious  and  unqualified  attack  upon 
the  doctrines  of  the  Church  as  inculcated  in  the  Book 
of  Common  Prayer.  He  maintained  that  outward 
ordinances  are  not  essential,  and  that  persons  once 
regenerated  will  certainly  be  saved ;  and  then  refer- 
ring to  the  Bishop's  idea  of  the  sense  in  which  "  as  it 
respects  a  change  of  state,  baptized  persons  are  regen- 
erated," he  said,  "  I  ask  again,  what  difference  does 
baptism  make  in  the  state  of  the  baptized  ?  Are  not 
all  men  in  a  state  of  conditional  salvation  ?  If  they 
repent  and  believe  the  Gospel  and  are  born  of  God, 
will  they  not  be  saved  ?  If  you  say,  yes,  then  after  all, 
baptism  amounts  to  nothing  as  it  respects  a  change 
of  state.  If  you  say,  no  (and  this  is  the  answer  given), 
then  no  one  can  be  saved  without  being  baptized  by 
one  who  has  received  a  commission  from  the  Bishop 
of  the  Church.  You  see,  brethren,  it  is  Episcopacy  or 
perdition !  " 

He  summed  up  his  reflections  upon  the  "  delicate 
subject "  which  he  had  discussed,  in  words  that  ought 
to  be  cited  here,  —  for  they  show  how  a  good  man 
could  be  led  by  his  feelings  and  zeal  for  his  own  com- 
munion, in  a  time  of  religious  excitement,  to  misin- 
terpret the  doctrines  of  the  Episcopal  Church.  "  I 
have  thought,"  said  he,  "  that  a  scheme  fraught  with 
so  many  and  so  great  errors,  a  scheme  which  makes 
the  terms  and  the  promises  of  salvation  palpably  in- 
consistent; which  denies  that  faith   and  repentance 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  143 

and  regeneration  are  the  work  of  God's  Spirit ;  which 
places  mankind  in  a  state  of  salvation  without  a  par- 
ticle of  holiness  ;  which  vests  the  power  of  doing  this 
in  the  hands  of  a  particular  set  of  men ;  which  in- 
cludes in  this  state  of  salvation  all  who  are  baptized 
by  them,  and  excludes  from  it,  and  from  final  salva- 
tion, all  who  are  not ;  which  maintains  that  a  change 
of  heart  is  not  the  dividing  line  between  sinners  and 
saints  —  between  the  heirs  of  heaven  and  the  heirs 
of  hell;  a  scheme  too,  which  with  the  face  of  liberality 
and  charity  is  zealously  maintained  and  propagated  — 
I  say  I  have  thought  that  such  a  scheme  needed  expos- 
ure. I  have  felt  that  I,  being  set  to  watch  for  your 
souls  as  one  who  must  give  account,  ought  to  show 
you  what  that  system  of  error  is  which  you  are  so 
often  invited  to  embrace.  If  any  one  thinks  an 
apology  necessary,  mine  is,  my  responsibility  to  my 
Divine  Master."  * 

The  sermon  which  contained  these  extraordinary 
statements  was  reviewed  by  Mr.  Rayner  in  a  pamphlet 
of  forty  pages,  and  he  produced  numerous  citations 
from  Scripture,  from  the  Westminster  Confession 
of  Faith,  from  the  Saybrook  Platform  and  the  Cate- 
chism of  John  Calvin,  to  prove  that  Mr.  Taylor  had 
overlooked  the  standards  of  his  own  order,  besides 
misrepresenting  the  Episcopal  "  scheme,"  and  quoting 
unfairly  the  writings  of  Bishop  Hobart. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  the  review  called 
forth  a  rejoinder,  in  which  no  new  light  was  shed 
upon  the  question  in  doctrinal  theology,  while  the 
reviewer  was  treated  with  a  mixture  of  irony,  ridicule 
and  seriousness,  that  detracted  from  the  dignity  of 

1  Sermon,  p.  18. 


144  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  controversy.  Mr.  Rayner,  in  his  publications,  was 
accustomed  to  write  himself  "  Rector  "  of  the  parishes 
of  which  he  had  charge,  and  in  the  following  passage 
there  is  an  insinuation  that  he  aspired  to  an  office, 
then  vacant  in  the  Diocese,  for  which  his  name, 
among  other  candidates,  had  never  been  seriously 
mentioned  by  his  brethren  :  "  No  sect  have  at  any 
time  set  themselves  up  so  high  for  orthodoxy  as  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  her  legitimate  offspring,  the 
Church  of  England ;  and  we  know  of  no  individual,  of 
late,  that  has  talked  louder  about  orthodoxy  than  the 
Rector  ;  and  we  doubt  not  but  by  his  great  exertions 
for  Episcopacy,  he  expects  to  add  another  title  to  those 
he  already  enjoys,  and  a  better  living  than  the  barren 
rocks  of  Huntington  afford.  Indeed  it  is  already  a 
matter  of  wonder  that  such  sterling  talents  as  those 
possessed  by  the  Rector,  should  have  been  so  long 
neglected." 1 

If  the  notice  of  this  controversy  has  appeared  to  be 
fuller  than  its  merits  deserved,  it  will  be  seen  here- 
after that  it  was  the  forerunner  of  events  which 
threatened  a  more  lasting  disturbance  of  the  peace  of 
good  neighborhood  between  Congregational  ministers 
and  those  of  the  Church.  It  was  narrowed  down,  at 
length,  to  one  point  of  Calvinism,  and  in  the  defence 
of  that,  another  champion  was  enlisted.  The  Rev. 
Bennet  Tyler,  pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  in 
Southbury,  published  a  sermon  in  the  year  1817, 
entitled,  "  Saints'  Perseverance  Vindicated  and  Estab- 
lished," which  Mr.  Rayner  was  quick  to  review  with 
his  usual  ability  ;  and  Thomas  Thorp,  then  a  Metho- 
dist minister  in  New  Haven,  came  to  his  assistance  in 

1  The  Reviewer  Reviewed,  p.  8. 


in  Connecticut.  145 

a  pamphlet  of  pungent  "  animadversions,"  that  had 
previously  received  the  approval  of  his  clerical  breth- 
ren stationed  in  New  York.  The  printers  were  kept 
busy  for  a  time  by  the  further  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject ;  but  in  the  end  metaphysical  divinity  had  lost 
ground  with  the  people,  and  Mr.  Tyler  dropped  the 
doctrine  of  the  "  Saints'  Perseverance,"  and  turned  his 
thoughts  to  the  preparation  of  a  new  scheme  for  stir- 
ring up  his  chief  antagonist. 

The  General  Convention  met  in  New  York,  May 
1817,  and  the  delegates  chosen  to  represent  the 
Church  in  Connecticut  were  Rev.  Dr.  Bronson,1  Rev. 
Messrs.  A.  Baldwin,  Searle,  and  Croswell,  and  Asa 
Chapman,  Elijah  Boardman,  Burrage  Beach,  and 
Charles  Sigourney.  Dr.  Bronson  and  two  of  the  lay 
delegates  were  not  in  attendance.  Among  the  resolu- 
tions adopted  by  that  body  was  one  which  originated 
in  this  Diocese,  and  grew  out  of  the  action  of  the 
Connecticut  Bible  Society  in  issuing  a  large  edition 
of  "  the  common  sized  Bibles,"  without  note  or  com- 
ment, but  with  the  corrupt  reading  of  Acts  vi.  3, 
wherein  the  word  ye  was  substituted  for  ive,%  —  a  read- 
ing intended  to  pervert  the  whole  order  of  apostolic 
ordination.  The  western  country  was  flooded  with 
the  copies,  particularly  Ohio  ;  and  at  the  instance  of 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Smith,  then  living  in  retirement  at  Nor- 
walk,  and  spending  his  time  in  writing  treatises  on 
chanting  and  church  psalmody,  the  delegates  to  the 
General  Convention  from  Connecticut  were  instructed 
to  direct  the  attention  of  that  body  to  the  propriety 

i  Brown  University  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
in  1813. 

2  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 
VOL.  II.  10 


146  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

of  establishing  "  some  specific  edition  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments,  without  note  or  comment,  to  be 
considered  as  the  authentic  version  or  standard,  by 
which  the  genuineness  of  all  copies  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures used  by  the  members  of  this  Church  is  to  be 
ascertained  ;  thereby  to  secure  them  against  perver- 
sions, and  the  people  of  our  communion  from  error, 
either  in  discipline  or  doctrine."  The  resolution  was 
entrusted  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Searle,  to  offer  at  the  proper 
time,  and  while  it  was  under  consideration,  "  a  lay 
member,  standing  in  a  pew  and  observing  a  Bible, 
took  it  to  turn  to  the  place  in  question,  when  he 
perceived  it  to  be  a  copy  of  the  edition  in  which  the 
corruption  had  been  detected."  1  No  further  argu- 
ment was  needed  to  secure  a  unanimous  vote  for  the 
resolution,  committing  the  whole  matter  to  the  action 
of  the  House  of  Bishops.  The  movement  thus  begun 
was  followed  up  at  future  sessions  of  the  General 
Convention ;  and  in  1823  a  canon  was  enacted,  which 
is  still  in  force,  prescribing  "  the  mode  of  publishing 
authorized  editions  of  the  standard  Bible  of  this 
Church." 

1  Bishop  White's  Memoirs,  etc.,  p.  229. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  147 


CHAPTER  XI. 

CONVENTION  AT  GUILFORD;  ADDRESS  OF  BISHOP  HOBART;  VISITA- 
TION; AND  AMMI  ROGERS. 

A.    D.    1817. 

Twenty-five  clergymen  and  thirty  lay- delegates  at- 
tended the  Annual  Convention  which  met  at  Guil- 
ford, June  4th,  1817.  The  sermon  was  preached  by 
Bishop  Hobart,  a  copy  of  which  was  requested  for 
publication,  and  he  was  invited  to  take  a  seat  as 
President  of  the  Convention.  One  of  the  first  meas- 
ures adopted  was  the  appointment  of  a  large  com- 
mittee, representing  every  part  of  the  State,  to  take 
an  accurate  list  of  the  number  of  souls  belonging  to 
each  parish ;  and  also  the  grand  levy  of  each  parish 
in  the  Diocese.  But  it  is  easier  to  adopt  resolutions 
than  to  carry  them  into  effect,  and  this,  after  being 
continued  from  one  convention  to  another,  was  finally 
lost  sight  of,  and  there  is  nothing  on  record  to  show 
that  the  committee  ever  came  together,  or  acted 
upon  the  subject  in  a  formal  manner. 

It  was  an  encouraging  feature,  that  in  no  previous 
year  had  the  parochial  reports  been  so  complete. 
Twenty-two  clergymen  gave  the  statistics  of  thirty- 
four  parishes  or  cures,  and  the  families  began  now  to 
be  more  generally  reported,  their  number  in  some 
places  having  largely  increased.  It  was  a  period 
when  public  attention,  in  the  progress  of    political 


148  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

events,  was  turned  to  the  Episcopal  Church ;  and  in- 
telligent men  in  the  State,  as  before  noted,  found 
reasons  for  changing  their  religious  connections. 

The  matter  of  electing  a  bishop  appears  not  to 
have  been  discussed  in  open  convention  at  this  time. 
Doubts  had  arisen  whether  such  a  proceeding  would 
be  constitutional,  and  the  clergy  in  convocation,  pre- 
viously to  the  meeting,  had  deliberated  for  a  long 
time;  and  finally  the  only  decision  reached  was  an 
indefinite  postponement  of  the  constitutional  ques- 
tion. There  were  those  among  them  who  favored  an 
immediate  election  and  were  ready  to  name  their  can- 
didates—  but  the  subject  was  not  pursued,  and  the 
report  of  the  treasurer  of  the  Bishop's  Fund,  more 
satisfactory  than  any  hitherto  presented,  renewed  the 
appeal  to  the  delinquent  parishes  to  pay  their  respec- 
tive assessments.  Twenty-nine  of  the  seventy-five 
parishes  in  the  Diocese  had  recognized  their  obliga- 
tion and  paid  in  full  or  in  part ;  but  from  the  larger 
number  no  returns  had  been  received,  and  these 
could  not  be  expected  to  take  a  very  lively  interest 
in  the  election  of  a  bishop,  to  whose  suitable  mainte- 
nance they  were  so  indifferent. 

"  There  can  be  but  one  sentiment  in  the  Church," 
is  the  language  of  the  report,  "in  relation  to  the 
Episcopal  office.  All  will  admit  its  incumbent  should 
be,  if  they  desire  the  Church  should  flourish,  a  man 
of  superior  virtues  and  talents.  The  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese  of  Connecticut  should,  if  possible,  be  inferior 
to  no  other  man  in  it.  Such  a  man  is  not  to  be  ob- 
tained without  an  adequate  support ;  nor,  if  elected 
from  without  the  State,  —  as  he  would  probably  re- 
side in  one  of  our  larger  towns,  where  the  expenses 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  149 

of  living  are  great,  and  where  his  situation  would 
require  from  him  considerable  hospitality,  —  without 
such  a  support  as  might  appear  to  some,  not  accu- 
rately apprised  of  the  extent  of  these  expenses,  to  be 
more  than  necessary."  At  that  date,  the  trustees  were 
a  close  corporation  and  the  charter  did  not  require 
them  to  make  an  annual  report  to  the  Convention  of 
the  state  of  the  Fund.  But  in  one  way  and  another 
the  subject  was  kept  before  the  parishes,  and  they  were 
all  continually  urged  as  in  duty  and  honor  bound,  to 
"  bear  their  fair  proportion  of  a  common  burthen  for 
the  common  benefit." 

The  Bishop,  in  his  address  to  the  Convention,  re- 
ferred to  the  past  history  of  the  Diocese  and  to  the 
prevailing  spirit  of  religious  inquiry,  which  was  calcu- 
lated to  advance  the  cause  of  truth.  "The  present 
state  of  the  Church  in  this  Diocese,"  said  he,  "  as  far 
as  I  am  acquainted  with  it,  affords  many  Causes  of 
congratulation.  Obstacles  to  her  advancement  from 
local  circumstances  are  daily  removing.  Her  evangel- 
ical doctrines,  unmixed  with  the  varying  dogmas  of 
metaphysical  speculation ;  her  apostolic  ministry,  un- 
impaired by  those  innovations  which,  displacing  her 
from  the  only  sure  foundation,  the  Rock  of  Ages, 
would  rest  her  on  the  sandy  basis  of  human  au- 
thority ;  her  primitive  worship,  free  from  the  unmean- 
ing frivolities  of  superstition,  and  the  disgusting  ex- 
travagances of  enthusiasm,  and  exhibiting  a  simple, 
sublime,  and  fervent  devotion,  are  constantly  obtain- 
ing a  stronger  hold  on  the  understandings  and  the 
hearts  of  the  people.  There  is  reason  to  hope  that 
she  will  be  that  fold  of  the  Redeemer  in  which  the 
friends  of  genuine  Christianity,  long  assailed  by  con- 


150  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Aiding  systems,  and  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  heresy 
and  schism,  will  at  length  find  rest,  in  the  enjoyment 
of  evangelical  truth,  apostolic  order,  and  primitive 
worship. 

"  This  happy  result  will  very  much  depend  on  the 
measures  that  are  pursued  to  preserve  the  Church  in 
Connecticut  in  that  purity  by  which  she  has  hitherto 
been  distinguished.  For  this  purpose  too  much  atten- 
tion cannot  be  paid  to  procuring  a  pious,  orthodox, 
and  learned  ministry,  by  exciting  youth  of  piety  and 
talents  to  engage  in  the  sacred  office,  and  by  assist- 
ing them  in  their  preparatory  studies." 

Connecticut  had  supplied  the  Church  in  other 
States  —  particularly  in  New  York  —  with  many  cler- 
gymen and  laymen  distinguished  for  piety,  and  for 
zeal,  firmness,  and  perseverance  in  advocating  the 
principles  which  pervade  our  Articles  and  Liturgy. 
The  inadequate  provision,  in  some  cases,  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  clergy,  was  one  cause  of  their  frequent 
removal  from  the  Diocese,  and  Bishop  Hobart  sug- 
gested to  the  consideration  of  the  laity,  that  the 
only  remedy  for  this  inconvenience  lay  in  more  zeal- 
ous exertions  and  more  liberal  contributions  on  their 
part.  It  could  not  be  expected  that  clergymen, 
pinched  by  poverty,  would  refuse  to  accept,  when 
offered  them  elsewhere,  "situations  of  equal  useful- 
ness and  greater  temporal  comfort."  Parishes  va- 
cated in  this  manner,  were  not  likely,  in  the  dearth 
of  ministers,  to  be  immediately  supplied  with  satisfac- 
tory services,  and  hence  the  increase  and  prosperity 
of  the  Diocese  were  in  danger  of  being  retarded,  as 
they  had  already  been,  to  some  extent,  for  the  same 
unworthy  reason. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  151 

One  important  measure  was  revived  at  this  Conven- 
tion and  put  into  effectual  operation.  Since  1808,  a 
voluntary  society  had  existed  —  formed  in  New  Ha- 
ven —  for  the  "  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge," 
and  composed  of  gentlemen  from  various  parts  of  the 
State  who,  at  the  time  of  subscribing  the  Constitu- 
tion, paid  one  dollar,  and  one  dollar  annually  there- 
after. The  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  by  virtue  of  his 
office,  was  president  of  this  society ;  and  its  object 
was  to  publish  and  circulate  at  reduced  rates,  the  Bible, 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  useful  religious  works 
of  a  doctrinal  and  practical  character.  It  served  a  good 
purpose  at  that  time,  for  weekly  periodicals,  devoted 
to  the  interests  of  the  Church,  had  not  yet  been  es- 
tablished. But  the  organization  failed  to  reach  the 
whole  wants  of  the  Diocese,  and  the  Convention, 
after  the  death  of  Bishop  Jarvis,  initiated  a  move- 
ment to  organize  a  Missionary  Society,  and  adopted  a 
constitution,  or  articles  of  agreement,  as  stated  in  a 
former  chapter.  The  management  of  its  affairs  and 
the  appointment  of  missionaries  were  entrusted  to 
the  Standing  Committee,  —  but  it  was  an  unfortunate 
society,  that  barely  struggled  into  existence  and  then 
almost  died  for  the  want  of  proper  care.  For  three 
years,  little  or  nothing  was  done  under  the  organiza- 
tion, and  the  movement  to  revive  it  contemplated 
uniting  in  the  same  agencjr  the  work  of  Diocesan 
missions  and  the  distribution  of  religious  publications. 
Bishop  Hobart  had  some  influence  in  giving  shape  to 
the  new  plan,  and  one  obstacle  was  removed  out  of 
the  way  by  the  members  of  the  voluntary  society 
adopting  at  their  annual  meeting  in  October,  1817,  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  whenever  "  the  Conven- 


152  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

tion  of  the  Diocese  shall  establish  a  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,"  they  would  con- 
sider themselves  dissolved,  and  pass  all  moneys  re- 
maining in  the  treasury  to  "  the  new  society,  to  be 
added  to  the  common  fund."  The  plan  of  operations 
and  the  arrangement  of  details  were  perfected  at  the 
next  Annual  Convention,  and  the  name  of  the  volun- 
tary organization,  which  was  the  title  of  an  English 
society,  was  wisely  retained.  The  first  article  of  the 
constitution  read :  "  The  society  shall  be  called  '  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 
Christian  Knowledge,  by  employing  Missionaries  in 
the  several  vacant  parishes  of  the  Diocese,  and  by  the 
gratuitous  distribution  of  the  Bible,  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer,  and  religious  Tracts.' " 

Thus  the  two  agencies  were  blended,  and  the  work 
of  Diocesan  missions  received  a  fresh  and  vigorous 
impulse.  Under  God,  the  Church  in  Connecticut 
owes  much  of  her  present  prosperity  to  the  opera- 
tions of  this  Society,  for  many  parishes  too  small  to 
procure  the  regular  administration  of  the  ordinances 
were  nursed  by  its  protecting  care,  until  they  grew 
into  importance  and  became  self-supporting.  Scat- 
tered families  that  could  not  well  be  gathered  and 
embodied  into  churches  were  reached  by  the  occa- 
sional visitations  of  a  missionary,  and  their  love  for 
Apostolic  order,  and  attachment  to  the  Liturgy,  were 
rekindled  by  the  interest  evinced  in  their  spiritual 
welfare.  Other  families  at  length  came  among  them, 
and  in  due  time  they  were  united  in  the  formation  of 
parishes  that  have  since  had  a  life  of  activity  and 
usefulness  in  the  Diocese. 

During  the  session  of  the  Convention  at  Guilford, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  153 

Bishop  Hobart  confirmed,  in  the  church  in  that  place, 
twenty  persons,  and  on  the  last  day  of  the  same  week 
he  consecrated  "  the  newly  erected  church  "  at  North 
Guilford,  and  confirmed  thirty-seven.  He  arranged 
at  this  time  for  an  immediate  and  extended  visitation 
of  the  Diocese,  and  gave  early  notice  of  his  appointr 
ments  by  publishing  them  in  the  secular  newspapers 
of  Connecticut.  On  the  6th  of  August,  1817,  he  had 
entered  the  State  and  was  in  Fairfield  County,  spend- 
ing, for  the  most  part,  a  clay  in  each  parish.  He 
passed  from  New  Canaan  to  Wilton,  Weston,  Redding, 
and  Danbury,  where  he  officiated  on  Sunday,  and  the 
next  day  he  was  at  Trumbull,  and  confirmed  in  the 
church  at  Tashua  eighty-two  persons,  the  largest  class 
presented  to  him  on  this  visitation,  except  the  class 
at  Chatham  (now  Portland),  which  numbered  one 
hundred  and  two.  Through  the  shore  towns  from 
Fairfield  to  New  Haven,  he  bent  his  course  towards 
Hartford,  where  he  arrived  on  Saturday  in  season  to 
admit  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Wainwright  (afterwards  Bishop 
of  New  York),  to  the  order  of  the  priesthood,  and 
during  the  services  of  Sunday,  he  administered  the 
rite  of  confirmation  in  Christ  Church  to  twenty-two 
persons.  After  visiting  several  parishes  on  the  east- 
ern side  of  the  Connecticut  river,  his  appointments 
took  him  into  New  London  County  and  back  by  a 
circuitous  route  to  Middletown  and  New  Haven.  He 
was  at  Woodbridge  (now  Bethany)  on  the  30th,  and 
confirmed  sixty-nine,  and  on  the  following  day  at 
Derby,  where  he  confirmed  seventy-eight.  He  conse- 
crated the  church  at  Humphreysville  (now  Seymour), 
September  2d,  and  administered  confirmation  to  sixty- 
one  persons,  and  on  the  3d  he  consecrated  the  church 


154         HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

at  Roxbury,  and  administered  the  same  rite  to  forty- 
three.  The  total  number  of  persons  confirmed  during 
this  visitation,  which  occupied  just  a  month,  was 
twelve  hundred  and  seventy-five,  and  the  record  of 
his  previous  visits  to  Connecticut,  as  far  as  it  has  been 
discovered,  gives  seventeen  hundred  and  eighty-two. 
Thus  the  aggregate  list  of  confirmations  in  the  short 
time  during  which  he  had  the  provisional  charge  of 
the  Diocese  rose  to  three  thousand  and  fifty-seven,  — 
only  eleven  less  than  the  entire  number  of  persons 
confirmed  by  Bishop  Jarvis  in  the  whole  fifteen  years 
of  his  Episcopate.  It  was  a  period  of  great  religious 
interest,  and  the  clergy  partook  of  the  spirit  and  zeal 
of  their  temporary  head.  They  felt  the  influence  of 
his  presence  among  them,  and  when  he  departed  they 
returned  to  their  labors  with  cheerful  toil  and  steady 
diligence. 

A  score  of  parishes  in  the  Diocese  still  believed  in 
the  sincerity  and  holiness  of  Ammi  Rogers.  He  him- 
self may  have  hoped  that,  with  the  death  of  Bishop 
Jarvis,  the  power  of  his  opponents  would  be  broken, 
and  that  he  could  gain  a  standing  among  the  clergy, 
which  would,  in  some  measure,  relieve  him  from  the 
odium  attached  to  his  character.  He  appeared  at  the 
Annual  Convention  in  1815  with  delegates  from 
Hebron  and  Groton,  who  were  admitted  to  seats  by 
courtesy,  and  in  consideration  that  the  parishes  which 
they  represented  had  not  hitherto  been  correctly  in- 
formed relative  to  the  true  state  of  the  case  ;  but  the 
personal  petition  of  Rogers  was  returned  to  him  with 
the  same  resolution  of  the  clergy,  heretofore  repeat- 
edly adopted,  that  they  were  "  not  competent  to  take 
cognizance   of   said   petition."     He   persisted   in   his 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  155 

attempts  to  be  recognized,  and  when  Bishop  Hobart 
assumed  the  charge  of  the  Diocese,  he  wrote  him  a 
plausible  letter,  reciting  the  history  of  his  ministerial 
life,  and  complaining  that  he  was  unjustly  deprived 
of  his  rights  and  privileges,  having  never,  as  he 
affirmed,  "  been  canonically  censured,  suspended, 
silenced  or  degraded."  Such  men  always  gather 
around  them  groups  of  friends  and  supporters,  and  at 
this  time,  Rogers  was  travelling  to  and  fro  in  the 
northeastern  section  of  the  State,  preaching  and  per- 
forming service  according  to  the  ritual  of  the  Church 
in  nine  different  parishes,  so  called  —  seven  of  which 
were  purely  the  result  of  his  officious  schemes,  and 
unknown  on  the  journals  of  the  Convention. 

Bishop  Hobart,  while  unwilling  to  countenance 
these  irregular  ministrations,  or  to  pronounce  upon  the 
canonical  steps  of  his  predecessor,  was  yet  desirous  of 
doing  his  duty  to  the  people  of  Hebron  and  other 
places,  and  accordingly,  about  the  time  of  publishing 
his  appointments  for  that  part  of  the  Diocese,  he 
requested  the  Rev.  Solomon  Blakeslee,  then  Rector  of 
the  Church  at  New  London,  to  undertake  a  mission 
for  him  to  these  places,  to  hold  public  services  in 
them,  and,  if  he  deemed  it  expedient,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  an  Episcopal  visitation.  Mr.  Blakeslee  was 
one  of  those  clergymen  who  had  befriended  Rogers, 
and  gravely  doubted  the  correctness  of  the  sentence 
of  degradation  issued  against  him,  and  when  he 
started  upon  his  journey,  he  was  quite  willing  to  take 
him  into  his  company,  and  thus  the  better  side  of 
things  was  presented  to  his  view,  for  not  only  did 
"  genteel  families  "  strengthen  the  impressions  he  had 
entertained  of  the  character  of  the  man  and  his  work, 


156  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

but  agreeable  incidents  marked  his  progress,  and 
"  every  toil,"  to  quote  his  own  words,  was  "  sweet- 
ened with  an  endearing  recollection." 

On  completing  his  missionary  tour,  Mr.  Blakeslee 
communicated  the  results  of  his  observation  to  Bishop 
Hobart  in  a  long  letter,  from  which  a  brief  extract 
here  will  be  sufficient.  "  I  have  already  stated,"  said 
he,  "  that  these  churches  have  been  reared  into  life 
by  the  care  and  industry  of  Mr.  Bogers,  and  to  speak 
with  caution,  they  embrace  a  number  of  not  less  than 
two  thousand  souls  ;  many  of  them  have  received 
baptism  at  his  hands,  have  come  to  the  holy  commu- 
nion through  his  persuasion  and  influence,  and  now 
wait  with  a  hope  and  expectation  of  being  presented 
by  their  own  minister  to  the  Bishop,  that  they  may  re- 
ceive the  apostolic  rite  of  confirmation.  This  is  the 
only  point  which  involves  in  it  any  delicacy.     .     .     . 

"I  should  be  pleased  to  accompany  the  Bishop  in 
his  visitation  of  the  Church  in  Hebron,  Jewett  City, 
and  Poquetannock  (three  only  of  the  nine  parishes 
which  I  visited  have  churches),  should  the  Bishop  be 
satisfied  that  it  would  be  consistent  with  his  duty  to 
acknowledge  Mr.  Rogers'  administrations,  and  to  re- 
ceive from  him,  as  the  curate,  the  subjects  of  confir- 
mation, and  to  communicate  with  him  in  the  offices  of 
the  Church ;  otherwise  I  do  not  consider  it  prudent  to 
hold  myself  responsible  for  any  consequences  that 
may  grow  out  of  your  sincere  wishes  to  serve  them." 1 

The  parishes  at  Hebron  and  Poquetannock  or 
Groton,  were  organized  before  the  Revolution,  and 
the  Bishop  had  included  them  in  his  appointments. 
He  travelled  upon  this  visitation  in  his  own  carriage, 

1  Life  of  Rogers,  pp.  61-62. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  157 

and  on  the  morning  of  the  20th  of  August,  he  was  at 
Marlborough,  a  town  adjoining  Hebron,  holding  a  ser- 
vice and  administering  the  rite  of  confirmation.  He 
had  decided  that  a  compliance  with  the  terms  stated 
by  Mr.  Blakeslee  would  be  an  interference  on  his 
part  with  the  official  acts  of  Bishop  Jarvis,  and  the 
news  of  his  intention  not  to  fulfill  his  appointment 
reached  Hebron  in  time  to  take  the  wardens  of  the 
parish  and  Dr.  John  S.  Peters  to  Marlborough,  to  con- 
fer with  him  and  make  some  arrangement  whereby 
the  church  might  be  visited  and  the  expectations  of 
the  people  gratified.  It  was  to  no  purpose  that 
Bogers  accompanied  these  gentlemen,  for  the  Bishop 
would  neither  see  him  nor  listen  to  any  proposal  in 
which  he  might  be  supposed  to  have  a  share.  But 
he  finally  consented  to  visit  Hebron,  if  the  wardens 
would  give  him  a  written  certificate  to  the  effect  that 
in  doing  so,  they  would  understand  that  he  was  to 
have  no  intercourse  with  this  man  as  a  pastor,  nor 
recognize  him  in  any  way  as  a  clergyman  of  the 
Church.  They  gave  him  such  a  paper,  drawn  up  in 
language  to  suit  his  own  feelings,  and  with  it  he  set 
forth  on  the  road  to  Hebron.  Upon  reaching  the  door 
of  the  church  and  alighting  from  his  carriage,  who 
should  come  out  to  welcome  him  amid  a  crowd  of  spec- 
tators, but  Rogers  himself  in  full  canonicals  !  The 
Bishop  turned  without  speaking  to  him,  reentered  his 
carriage,  drove  to  the  public  house,  and  after  partaking 
of  some  refreshments  departed  from  the  town,  to  the 
great  disappointment  and  grief  of  the  assembled 
people,  and  to  the  mortification  of  those  who,  if  they 
could  not  control  Rogers  by  their  agreement,  should 
at  least  have  ascertained  the  fact  soon  enough  to  save 


158  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

themselves  from  the  appearance  of  imposing  upon  a 
dignified  and  courteous  prelate,  yielding  to  their 
special  request  in  the  matter  of  a  religious  service. 

The  end  of  this  long  and  unhappy  trouble  was  now 
approaching.  The  friends  of  the  degraded  priest 
rallied  around  him  in  vain,  multiplying  their  testimo- 
nials and  redoubling  their  efforts  to  vindicate  his 
character.  He  sought  once  more  to  be  accepted  as  a 
clergyman  in  the  Diocese,  and  for  this  purpose  trans- 
mitted a  letter  of  his  own,  with  sundry  documents 
from  his  supporters,  to  the  Annual  Convention  of 
1818  ;  but  no  action  was  taken  upon  these  communi- 
cations and  none  was  needed,  for  his  case,  instead 
of  presenting  any  new  claims  for  consideration,  had, 
by  this  time,  assumed  a  sadder  aspect.  The  current 
of  public  opinion  was  bearing  him  down  to  depths 
from  which  he  could  never  rise,  except  by  the  grace 
and  favor  of  God.  He  was  accused  of  the  most  heinous 
offences,  even  of  crimes  committed  with  a  young 
woman,  and  arraigned  by  the  State  before  the  Su- 
preme Court  of  New  London  County.  After  a  pro- 
tracted trial,  he  was  found  guilty  of  the  charges 
brought  against  him,  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment 
in  the  common  jail  at  Norwich  for  two  years ;  the 
Judge,  in  mercy  to  his  children,  withholding  a  severer 
punishment. 

From  the  chamber  of  his  prison  he  wrote  to  the 
Governor  of  the  State,  and  also  memorialized  the 
General  Assembly,  asking  the  one  to  grant  him  a 
reprieve  as  the  law  permitted,  and  the  other  to  take 
his  case  into  consideration  and  release  him  from  con- 
finement, or  allow  him  a  new  trial  before  what  he 
called  "  an  impartial  and  unprejudiced  tribunal."    The 


IK  CONNECTICUT.  159 

principal  witnesses  whose  testimony  had  supported  the 
prosecution  were  produced  at  the  hearing  before  the 
joint  committee  of  the  General  Assembly,  and  declared 
under  oath  that  their  former  statements  were  false,  and 
that  they  had  been  persuaded  to  make  them,  contrary 
to  their  inclinations,  by  those  who  were  concerned  in 
framing  the  indictment.  This  contradiction  was  un- 
doubtedly instigated  by  the  memorialist  and  his 
friends.  But  the  perjured  witnesses  did  not  avail 
him,  for  upon  an  unfavorable  report  from  the  com- 
mittee, the  Legislature  declined  to  rejudge  a  matter 
already  decided  by  the  proper  tribunal.  Rogers 
therefore  served  out  the  sentence  of  the  Court,  and 
afterwards  published,  in  a  small  volume,  the  "  Me- 
moirs" of  himself — a  bad  book,  which  bears  abundant 
evidence  of  an  insolent  and  self-righteous  spirit,  and  a 
corrupt  and  wicked  heart.  He  went  through  the 
country,  selling  his  "Memoirs,"  and  preaching  wher- 
ever he  could  gather  an  audience ;  but  his  old  adhe- 
rents now  received  him  with  distrust  or  began  to  recoil 
from  him,  and  he  gained  not  even  a  temporary  settle- 
ment in  any  duly  constituted  parish  of  the  Diocese. 
His  powers  to  excite  an  interest  in  his  behalf  were  at 
an  end.  The  congregations,  which  he  organized  before 
his  imprisonment,  broke  up,  and  when  he  searched  for 
his  numerous  flocks  they  were  nowhere  to  be  found. 
He  was  a  pestilent  historic  character,  who  was  per- 
mitted, in  the  providence  of  God,  to  trouble  the 
Church  and  society  for  half  a  century,  and  died  at 
Ballston,  N.  Y.,  in  1852,  showing  no  signs  of  having 
"  truly  and  earnestly  repented  him  of  his  sins,"  and 
fighting  to  the  last  his  sentence  of  degradation  from 
the  ministry. 


160         HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  •  CHURCH 


CHAPTER   XII. 

POLITICAL   REVOLUTION  ;  CHANGE  IN  THE   STATE   GOVERNMENT  ; 
ELECTION  SERMON  ;  AND  NEW  CONSTITUTION. 

A.  D.  1817-1818. 

While  all  religious  denominations  had  been  toler- 
ated in  Connecticut  since  1784,  pains  were  taken  to 
keep  the  control  of  the  government  in  the  hands  of 
the  "  Standing  Order,"  and  to  shape  things  with  refer- 
ence to  a  right  succession.  Until  Jonathan  Ingersoll, 
an  Episcopalian,  was  chosen  Lieutenant  Governor  in 
1816,  the  State  officers  from  the  settlement  of  the 
Colony  had  been  Congregationalists,  and  the  ministers 
of  that  body  were  supposed  to  have  great  influence 
in  selecting  the  candidates  and  accomplishing  their 
election.  It  is"  a  natural  feeling  that  a  religious 
establishment  is  entitled  to  the  patronage  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  to  the  honors  and  emoluments  of  its 
offices.  But  the  connection  between  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  power  is  always  dangerous,  and  the  partial- 
ity towards  the  "  Standing  Order,"  evinced  by  the 
General  Assembly  in  a  variety  of  public  acts,  and  the 
apparent  reluctance  to  heed  the  claims  of  other  relig- 
ious denominations,  awakened  among  a  large  portion 
of  the  people  a  desire  for  change  and  for  a  more  lib- 
eral policy.  It  has  already  been  seen  what  effect  the 
rejection  of  the  memorial  of  Episcopalians  in  regard 
to  the  Phoenix  Bank  Bonus  produced ;  and  the  "  Ap- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  161 

propriation  Act  for  the  support  of  Literature  and 
Religion,"  was  a  State  stratagem  which  was  simply  lost 
upon  "  the  minor  sects."  If  it  was  intended  to  be  a 
measure  to  perpetuate  power  and  appease  opposition, 
it  failed  of  its  object,  for  the  new  political  party  that 
favored  "  Toleration,"  rapidly  gained  accessions  from 
all  who  were  not  in  sympathy  with  the  Congrega- 
tional system,  and  from  some  who  were.  The  Fed- 
eralists found  arrayed  against  them  those  who  had 
hitherto  been  numbered  among  their  steadiest  sup- 
porters. Old  issues  were  forgotten,  and  the  Episcopa- 
lians of  the  State  almost  to  a  man,  though  voting 
heretofore  for  the  existing  order  of  things,  now  joined 
the  minority,  and  worked  with  all  the  appliances  in 
their  power  to  bring  on  a  political  revolution. 

Oliver  Wolcott,  of  Litchfield,  who  inherited  from  his 
father  —  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
—  the  spirit  of  a  patriot  and  the  qualities  of  a  states- 
man ;  and  who  had  been  a  member  of  the  Cabinet 
under  the  administration  of  John  Adams,  was  put  in 
nomination  for  governor  in  opposition  to  John  Cotton 
Smith,  then  for  four  years  incumbent  of  the  office.  He 
was  a  Federalist  of  the  old  school,  "  unenrolled  in  the 
ranks  of  democracy  on  the  one  hand,  and  uninfected 
with  the  intrigues  and  plottings  of  the  dominant  party 
on  the  other."  He  was  therefore  an  available  candi- 
date, and  at  the  annual  election  in  1817,  the  "  Tolera- 
tion party,"  which  had  taken  him  up,  was  victorious, 
and  Wolcott  was  chosen  Governor  of  the  State  by  a 
small  majority,  and  continued  in  the  office  for  a  decade 
of  years.  At  that  period  the  tenure  of  official  station 
was   more   permanent   than  now,  and   partisan  sub- 

VOL.  II.  11 


162  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

serviency  in  the  minds  of  the  people  had  not  yet 
taken  the  place  of  better  qualifications. 

This  change  in  her  chief  magistracy  was  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  era  in  the  civil  and  political  history  of 
Connecticut.  It  was  rendered  more  decisive  by  a 
corresponding  change  in  the  character  of  the  General 
Assembly,  a  majority  of  whose  members  were  counted 
on  the  side  of  toleration,  and  among  them  were  some 
of  the  most  influential  and  capable  men  in  the  State. 
The  Episcopal  Church  was  well  represented,  and 
prominent  in  the  Council  or  Upper  House  were  Jona- 
than Ingersoll,  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  Asa  Chap- 
man and  Samuel  W.  Johnson,  and  in  the  popular 
branch  of  the  Legislature  were  Charles  Denison, 
chosen  Speaker,  John  S.  Peters  and  Simeon  H.  Miner, 
clerks,  all  Episcopalians,  and  zealous  for  the  welfare 
of  the  religious  body  with  which  they  were  connected. 
Governor  Wolcott,  educated  among  the  Congregation- 
alists,  could  not  be  ignorant  that  his  election  had 
turned  upon  points  which  required  from  him  some 
official  notice  ;  and  hence  in  his  message  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  he  recommended,  among  other  things, 
the  adoption  of  measures  with  a  view  to  a  deliberate 
revision  of  the  ancient  system  of  taxation,  but  he 
touched  very  tenderly  upon  another  matter  equally 
dear  to  the  hopes  of  the  triumphant  party.  "  There 
are  no  subjects,"  said  he,  "  respecting  which  the  sensi- 
bility of  freemen  is  more  liable  to  be  excited  to  impa- 
tience than  in  regard  to  the  rights  of  conscience  and 
the  freedom  of  suffrage.  So  highly  do  the  public 
prize  their  privileges,  that  they  have  sometimes  as- 
cribed to  unfriendly  motives  towards  particular  sects 
or  denominations,  such  regulations  as  were  sincerely 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  163 

intended  to  secure  an  equality  of  rights  to  every  por- 
tion of  the  community.  Whenever  the  public  mind 
appears  to  be  considerably  agitated  on  these  subjects, 
prudence  requires  that  the  Legislature  should  review 
its  measures,  and  by  reasonable  explanations  or 
modifications  of  the  law,  restore  public  confidence  and 
tranquillity." 

Cautious  and  measured  words  like  these  were  not 
unwise ;  but  the  newly  chosen  Governor  was  more  fear- 
less in  departing  from  a  custom  which  all  his  predeces- 
sors in  office  had  obeyed  as  implicitly  as  a  law  of  the 
land.  The  General  Assembly  was  then  convened  semi- 
annually at  Hartford  and  New  Haven  in  the  spring 
and  autumn,  and  an  election  for  members  of  the 
Council  and  Lower  House  was  held  each  season,  but 
the  State  officers  were  only  chosen  at  the  annual 
Freemen's  Meeting  in  April.  The  first  session  and 
the  inauguration  of  the  Governor  were  always  in 
Hartford,  and  at  the  anniversary,  a  minister  of  the 
established  faith  delivered  a  sermon  "  before  his  Ex- 
cellency and  the  Honorable  General  Assembly,"  to 
instruct  them  in  the  nature  of  their  duties  and  in  the 
origin  and  ends  of  civil  government.  The  sermon 
was  invariably  printed  at  the  public  expense,  and  if 
the  cost  of  printing  had  been  as  great  in  those  days 
as  it  is  now,  the  Commonwealth  would  have  paid 
dearly  for  its  standard  theology.  The  election  ser- 
mon of  President  Stiles  in  1783,  was  ninety-nine 
pages  in  length,  and  that  of  Azel  Backus  in  1798, 
from  the  text,  "  Oh  that  I  were  made  judge  in  the  land, 
that  every  man  which  hath  any  suit  or  cause  might 
come  unto  me,  and  I  would  do  him  justice,"  occupied 
fifty-four  octavo  pages.     How  the  legislators  had  the 


164         HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

patience  to  sit  through  these  long  disquisitions  is  a 
mystery,  but  they  seem  to  have  prized  them  more 
highly  than  their  successors  at  the  present  time  prize 
the  short  prayers  of  the  clergy  at  the  opening  of  the 
daily  sessions. 

Governor  Wolcott,  on  the  30th  of  October,  1817,  the 
very  day  on  which  the  Legislature  closed  its  autumnal 
session,  addressed  a  note  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Croswell, 
Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  saying,  "  I 
have  requested  President  Day  to  preach  the  Election 
Sermon  before  the  General  Assembly  at  Hartford,  in 
May  next,  but  as  some  accident  may  occasion  a  disap- 
pointment on  his  part,  I  respectfully  request  you, 
sir,  to  attend  the  election,  prepared  to  deliver  the  cus- 
tomary discourse  on  that  occasion.  Your  answer,  when 
convenient,  will  be  acceptable."  He  immediately  ac- 
knowledged the  flattering  distinction,  and  said  it  would 
afford  him  great  pleasure  to  comply  with  his  Excel- 
lency's request.  President  Day  took  an  early  oppor- 
tunity to  make  known  his  purpose  not  to  preach  the 
Election  Sermon,  and,  therefore,  as  all  parties  had 
probably  anticipated,  the  Rector  of  Trinity  Church 
was  left  to  make  the  necessary  preparation. 

So  bold  a  departure  from  the  established  custom 
was  calculated  to  stir  up  the  jealousy  of  those  who 
fondly  imagined  that  they  had  a  monopoly  of  all  the 
religious  and  civil  power  in  the  State.  The  anniver- 
sary of  the  General  Election  was  a  high  festival  with 
the  ministers  of  the  Congregational  order.  They  at- 
tended in  large  numbers  the  levee  of  the  appointed 
preacher,  and  joined  in  a  grand  procession  under  a 
military  escort,  with  a  band  of  music,  to  the  meeting- 
house where  the  sermon  was  to  be  delivered.     They 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  165 

were  also  welcome  guests  at  the  dinner  provided  for 
them  at  the  public  expense.  To  all  this  ceremony, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Croswell,  in  accepting  the  appointment, 
was  obliged  to  conform,  and  accordingly,  clad  in  his 
priestly  robe,  he  received  the  Congregational  minis- 
ters, as  they  presented  themselves  to  be  introduced 
and  to  pay  their  respects.  But  it  was  observed  that, 
on  this  anniversary,  the  attendance  was  small  com- 
pared with  former  years,  the  whole  number  being  less 
than  one  hundred.  No  little  curiosity  was  excited  to 
see  how  the  services  would  be  conducted,  for  many 
supposed  that  the  Episcopal  form  was  incapable  of 
being  adapted  to  such  a  commingling  of  secular  and 
religious  practices,  and  that  it  would  be  necessary  to 
bring  in  a  Congregational  divine  to  offer  an  appropri- 
ate prayer.  The  Episcopalians  were  desirous  of  seeing 
the  Church  fully  exhibited  on  this  State  occasion,  and 
shortly  before  the  time,  Bishop  Hobart  wrote  to  Mr. 
Croswell  thus  :  "  The  preaching  of  an  Episcopal  clergy- 
man before  the  Legislature  of  Connecticut  will  cer- 
tainly be  a  new  and  interesting  event.  It  is  of  con- 
siderable importance  that  as  a  precedent  is  now  to  be 
established  we  should  exhibit  fully  the  services  of  our 
Church.  I  have  no  doubt  that  you  agree  with  me  in 
this,  and  intend  performing  the  morning  service  as  if 
it  were  in  your  church.  It  will  certainly  be  proper 
that  you  should  introduce  appropriate  prayers  ;  and 
doubtless  none  can  be  more  suitable  than  those  drawn 
up  by  Bishop  Seabury." 1 

The  religious  services  were  held  in  the  large  brick 
meeting-house  in  Hartford,  known  as  the  Centre 
Church,  and  two  of  the  oldest  divines  of  the  Congre- 

1  MS.  Letter,  May  9,  1818. 


166  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

gational  order  were  seated  with  Mr.  Croswell  in  the 
pulpit,  but  they  were  not  expected  to  bear  any  part 
in  the  exercises.  By  an  arrangement  with  his  Epis- 
copal friends,  he  conducted  the  service  in  accordance 
with  the  prescribed  ritual  of  the  Church,  slightly 
abridged  and  with  only  one  lesson.  The  sermon 
which  he  delivered  was  published  by  the  General  As- 
sembly, and  two  or  three  private  editions  of  it  subse- 
quently passed  through  the  press.  It  was  from  the 
text,  "  Render  therefore  unto  Caesar  the  things  which 
be  Caesar's,  and  unto  God,  the  things  which  be  God's," 
and  the  opening  paragraphs  were  calculated  to  rivet 
the  attention  of  his  audience. 

"  Holding  in  high  veneration  the  character  of  our 
pious  forefathers,  feeling  every  disposition  to  treat  the 
customs  which  bear  the  sanction  of  their  authority 
with  deference  and  respect,  I  would  not,  without  good 
and  sufficient  cause,  depart  from  a  course  which  ap- 
pears to  have  been  ranked  among  the  steady  habits  of 
my  native  State;  nor  would  I,  from  an  affectation  of 
singularity,  or  on  any  other  slight  ground,  dissent 
from  opinions,  which  have  long  been  considered  by 
many  as  incontrovertible.  If,  therefore,  on  the  present 
occasion,  I  shall  appear  to  entertain  doubts  of  the  pro- 
priety of  blending  too  closely  the  civil  and  religious 
concerns  of  the  community ;  or  if  I  shall  seem  more 
solicitous  to  maintain  the  dignity  of  my  profession, 
than  to  subserve  any  particular  political  interest ;  or 
if  it  shall  be  found  that  I  am  more  ambitious  to  fulfill 
my  obligations  as  a  minister  of  Christ,  than  to  offer 
the  incense  of  flattery  to  any  sect  or  denomination  of 
men;  I  trust  you  will  do  me  the  justice  to  believe, 
that  I  act  under  the  influence  of  a  solemn  sense  of 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  167 

duty,  and  that  I  am  governed  by  no  other  motives 
than  a  sincere  desire  to  comply  with  the  spirit  of 
the  precept  which  I  have  selected  for  my  text.  Be 
this,  however,  as  it  may,  I  hope  to  find  a  defence  of 
the  sentiments  which  I  may  advance,  and  a  justifica- 
tion of  the  course  which  I  may  pursue,  in  the  example 
of  our  blessed  Lord,  in  the  case  which  drew  the  pre- 
cept from  his  lips." 

The  conclusion  of  the  sermon,  which  was  addressed 
particularly  to  the  clergy,  is  equally  decisive  and  em- 
phatic. He  applied  the  principle  embraced  in  the 
text  to  the  people  collectively ;  to  the  civil  rulers 
and  magistrates,  and  to  the  clerical  profession ;  and 
then  he  observed  the  same  classification  in  his  closing 
remarks.  "  As  there  are  few  occasions,"  said  he, 
"which  call  such  a  number  of  our  profession  to- 
gether, I  have  deemed  this  a  fit  and  proper  oppor- 
tunity for  expressing,  not  only  my  own  sentiments, 
but  those  held  by  the  Church  generally  to  which  I 
belong.  And  as  we  have  little  reason  to  hope  that 
we  shall  all  meet  again  in  this  world,  you  will  permit 
me  now,  on  parting,  to  acid  a  word  of  exhortation. 
Let  us  then,  my  brethren,  endeavor  to  profit  by  the 
precept  before  us.  Aiming  to  maintain  the  honor  of 
our  profession  and  the  dignity  of  the  Christian  min- 
istry, let  us  not  become  instrumental  in  debasing 
them  by  worldly  mixtures.  Let  it  be  Our  study  to 
stand  aloof  from  those  disputes  which  disturb  the 
peace  and  harmony  of  society.  Let  us  not  suffer  our- 
selves to  be  drawn  into  measures  which  may  tend  to 
promote  the  spirit  of  party  among  our  respective  flocks. 
Let  us  not  give  any  reasonable  cause  for  suspicion 
that  our  influence  is  exerted  in  those  political  ques- 


168  HISTORY    OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

tions,  by  which  the  community  is  unhappily  divided. 
Let  us  not  put  it  in  the  power  of  the  historian  to 
accuse  us  of  descending  from  our  high  calling  to  min- 
gle in  those  dissensions  which  are  the  offspring  of 
human  pride  and  passion.  And,  above  all,  let  us 
beware  that  we  do  not  defraud  our  Lord  and  Master 
of  his  rightful  claims.  His  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world.  He  is  jealous  of  his  honor,  and  will  not 
suffer  his  unfaithful  servants  to  escape  unpunished. 
We  know  the  nature  of  our  obligations.  We  know 
by  what  solemn  vows  we  have  enrolled  ourselves 
under  the  standard  of  the  Cross.  We  know  that  we 
stand  pledged,  by  everything  dear  and  sacred  to  man, 
to  preach  Christ  Crucified.  Let  us  not  then  incur  the 
dreadful  guilt  of  preaching  a  religion  without  a  cross. 
Let  us  not  glory  save  in  the  Cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  By  this  cross,  let  the  world  be  crucified  unto 
us ;  and  by  the  same  cross,  let  us  be  crucified  unto  the 
world."  J  " 

The  sumptuous  feast  provided  for  the  clergy  and 
others  at  the  expense  of  the  State,  followed  the  relig- 
ious services.  In  the  large  dining  hall,  where  the 
viands  were  to  be  served,  the  table  was  spread, 
and  at  the  head  of  it  was  placed  the  appointed 
preacher,  with  the  two  venerable  divines  who  had 
attended  him  in  the  pulpit,  seated  on  either  side. 
One  of  these  was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Perkins,  of  West  Hart- 
ford —  the  birth-place  of  Mr.  Croswell  —  who  had 
been  his  preceptor  and  pastor  in  the  days  of  his  child- 
hood, and  who  seemed  very  happy  to  meet  his  pupil 
on  this  festive  occasion.  "  I  am  always  pleased,"  said 
he,  "  to  attend  these  anniversaries,  and  in  forty  years 

1  Sermon,  pp.  15,  16. 


EST  CONNECTICUT.  169 

I  have  never  been  absent  but  once  from  the  annual 
election  dinner.  But  I  little  thought,  when  I  cate- 
chised the  children  at  the  South  End,  that  Harry  Cros- 
well  would  become  an  Episcopal  minister  and  preach 
the  Election  Sermon."  l 

The  innovation  of  Governor  Wolcott  upon  the  cus- 
tom of  his  predecessors  did  not  stop  with  a  single 
example.  The  preachers  before  the  General  Assembly 
were  subsequently  selected  not  only  from  the  Episco- 
pal Church,  but  from  among  the  Methodists  and  Bap- 
tists. The  clergy,  however,  were  less  and  less  inclined 
to  attend  the  anniversary ;  the  public  interest  grad- 
ually diminished,  and  after  a  few  years,  the  practice, 
with  all  its  accompanying  ceremonies,  fell  into  disuse. 

The  party  which  came  into  power  in  1817  was  bent 
on  the  accomplishment  of  great  changes  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  State.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  there  had  been  much  uneasiness  among  a 
minority  of  the  people,  and  several  meetings  had  been 
held  in  different  places  at  which  the  old  charter  of 
King  Charles  the  Second  was  freely  discussed,  and  the 
way  prepared  for  a  political  revolution.  The  spirit 
of  the  leaders  in  these  movements  was  bold  and  deci- 
sive, and  one  of  the  pamphleteers  of  that  day  said  in 
reference  to  them,  "  the  peace  of  families,  of  neighbor- 
hoods, of  towns,  and  of  the  whole  community,  has 
been  almost  turned  into  war,  and  hatred  and  revenge 
have  succeeded  to  kindness  and  mercy." 

The  complaints  of  the  minority  were  treated  as 
imaginary,  or  as  the  offspring  of  ambitious  dema- 
gogues, and  many  reasons  were  urged  for  continuing 
under  a  charter  which  had  served  the  Commonwealth 

»  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


170  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

so  well  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
The  historical  associations  connected  with  its  preser- 
vation in  the  hollow  of  an  oak  at  Hartford  had  their 
influence  upon  the  Puritan  mind,  and  the  established 
religion  was  fortified  by  statutes  which  had  grown  up 
under  it,  and  which,  according  to  the  indications, 
would  be  set  aside  in  framing;  a  new  constitution. 
Instead  of  yielding,  therefore,  to  the  sentiments  of  the 
minority,  care  was  taken  to  check  their  advancement, 
and  some  acts  were  passed  by  the  General  Assembly 
which  were  regarded  as  arbitrary  and  oppressive. 
The  "  stand  up  law,"  *  as  it  was  called,  touching  the 
elective  franchise,  was  one  of  these,  and  it  made  no 
friends  for  the  party  that  procured  its  enactment. 
The  list  of  grievances  was  large,  and  the  first  decisive 
steps  to  secure  a  new  constitution  were  taken  in  the 
last  week  of  August,  1804,  when  a  convention  of  men 
from  ninety-seven  towns  in  the  State,  and  under- 
stood to  represent  the  sentiments  of  the  Eepublicans, 
or  Democrats  as  they  were  stigmatized  by  the  Fed- 
eralists, met  at  New  Haven  and  passed  a  series  of 
resolutions  in  favor  of  the  change  which  they  so  much 
desired.  This  action  cost  some  of  the  leading  spirits 
of  the  convention  the  loss  of  their  humble  offices ; 2 
but  two  years  afterwards  another  meeting,  bolder  and 
more  decided  in  its  tone,  was  held  by  the  same  polit- 

'  For  example,  the  Council  or  Upper  House  was  composed  of  twelve  mem- 
bers, and  this  law  prescribed  that  votes  should  be  given  for  one  candidate  at 
a  time,  by  the  freemen  rising  or  standing,  while  they  were  counted,  in  case 
of  a  division  ;  and  then  the  parties  withdrew  to  opposite  sides,  and  this  was 
done  twelve  times  in  succession.  The  law  was  often  the  means  of  designating 
objects  of  denunciation ;  and  in  many  instances  deterred  the  dependent 
man  from  voting,  or  ruined  him  for  exercising  that  right  with  more  courage 
than  policy. 

2  Hollister's  History  of  Connecticut,  vol.  ii.  p.  512. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  171 

ical  party  at  Litchfield,  and  thus  things  went  on  until 
the  War  of  1812.  Connecticut  was  opposed  to  this 
war,  and  in  the  disputes  that  accompanied  it  the  Con- 
gregational clergy,  as  in  the  struggle  for  Independ- 
ence, bore  a  conspicuous,  though  different  part,  and 
many  sermons  were  preached  that  helped  to  strengthen 
the  State  government  at  the  expense  of  the  general 
administration.  But  the  war,  which  was  popular  in 
some  sections  of  the  land,  gained  supporters  in  Con- 
necticut as  it  progressed,  and  closed  with  better  re- 
sults and  a  better  reputation  than  its  opponents  had 
predicted,  and  too  soon  for  the  Hartford  Convention 
to  urge  upon  the  public  its  schemes  for  "  a  limitation 
of  powers  which,"  it  was  claimed, li  had  been  misused." 

It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  at  this  period 
in  our  civil  history,  the  old  issues  between  Federalists 
and  Republicans  were  forgotten,  and  the  great  basis 
on  which  the  new  party  achieved  their  success  was 
that  of  "  toleration."  But  though  coming  into  power 
under  a  new  name,  the  grievances  of  the  minority  in 
the  past  were  remembered  and  measures  at  once 
adopted  to  provide  for  their  redress.  Governor  Wol- 
cott,  who,  with  the  rest  of  the  people,  had  learned  to 
reverence  the  ancient  charter,  thus  spoke  of  the  ex- 
pediency of  some  change,  in  his  message  to  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  at  the  May  session,  1818. 

"  Prior  to  the  establishment  of  American  Independ- 
ence, the  charter  of  Charles  the  Second  of  England 
was  viewed  as  the  palladium  of  the  liberties  of  Con- 
necticut. It  surely  merited  all  the  attachment  it  re- 
ceived; for  whatever  had  been  the  claims  of  the 
British  crown  or  nation  to  jurisdiction  or  territory,  they 
were  all  with  mere  nominal  exceptions,  surrendered 


172  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

to  our  ancestors  by  that  instrument ;  especially  there 
was  expressly  conceded  to  them  and  their  posterity, 
the  inestimable  privilege  of  being  governed  by  muni- 
cipal regulations,  framed  and  executed  by  rulers  of 
their  own  appointment.  The  Revolutionary  War,  of 
course,  occasioned  no  change  or  dissolution  of  our 
social  system.  Considered  merely  as  an  instrument 
defining  the  powers  and  duties  of  magistrates  and 
rulers,  this  charter  may  justly  be  considered  as  unpro- 
visional  and  imperfect,  yet  it  ought  to  be  recollected 
that  what  is  now  its  greatest  defect,  was  formerly  a 
preeminent  advantage,  it  being  then  highly  important 
to  the  people  to  acquire  the  greatest  latitude  and 
authority  with  an  exemption  from  British  interference 
and  control." 

At  the  same  session  of  the  Legislature,  it  was  u  Re- 
solved, That  it  be  and  is  hereby  recommended  to  the 
people  of  this  State,  who  are  qualified  to  vote  in  town 
or  freemen's  meetings,  to  assemble  in  their  respective 
towns  on  the  4th  day  of  July  next,  at  nine  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  at  the  usual  place  of  holding  town  or 
freemen's  meetings,  and  after  having  chosen  their 
presiding  officer,  then  and  there  to  elect  by  ballot  as 
many  delegates  as  said  towns  now  choose  representa- 
tives to  the  General  Assembly,  who  shall  meet  in  con- 
vention at  the  State-house  in  Hartford,  on  the  fourth 
"Wednesday  of  August  next ;  and  when  so  convened, 
shall,  if  it  be  deemed  by  them  expedient,  proceed  to 
the  formation  of  a  constitution  of  civil  government 
for  the  people  of  this  State." 

Further  provision  was  made  that  a  copy  of  the 
constitution,  when  formed,  should  be  transmitted  to 
each  town  clerk  with  instructions  to  lay  it  before  the 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  173 

people  of  his  town,  for  their  approval  and  ratification. 
When  ratified  by  a  majority  of  the  qualified  voters, 
assembled  in  legal  meeting,  it  was  to  become  and 
remain  the  supreme  law  of  Connecticut. 

In  this  way  was  adopted  the  new  Constitution, 
which  abolished  the  established  ecclesiastical  system, 
and  gave  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  State  equal 
civil  and  religious  privileges.  They  were  no  longer 
obliged  to  enroll  themselves  among  Episcopalians  or 
the  "  minor  sects  "  to  escape  taxation  for  the  support 
of  the  Standing  Order.  The  last  restriction  upon  the 
consciences  of  men  was  now  removed,  and  religion  in 
every  denominational  form  was  left  to  their  free 
acceptance  or  deliberate  rejection.  They  might  be 
infidels,  and  yet  enjoy  the  wholesome  protection  of 
Christian  laws,  without  contributing  a  farthing  to- 
wards the  maintenance  of  Christianity.  It  was  against 
the  plan  of  the  voluntary  system  that  theologians  and 
politicians  of  that  period  protested  and  strove,  and 
some  of  them  spoke  of  it  as  a  scheme  which  would 
open  the  flood-gates  of  ruin  on  the  State.  But  the 
experience  of  half  a  century  has  proved  the  ground- 
lessness of  their  fears ;  and  the  promise  of  our  Divine 
Lord  still  continues  to  be  the  source  of  all  human 
encouragement  amid  heresies  and  false  doctrine,  that 
the  Church,  being  built  upon  a  rock,  is  so  strong  that 
"  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it." 


174  HISTOKY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

PROSPERITY  OF  THE  DIOCESE;  CORRESPONDENCE  AMONG  THE  CLER- 
GY; AND  ELECTION  OF  A  BISHOP. 

A.    D.    1818-1819. 

The  adoption  of  the  new  Constitution  was  of  no 
direct  or  special  advantage  to  the  Church  in  Connecti- 
cut. Many,  to  escape  taxation  for  the  support  of 
the  Standing  Order,  and  some  on  political  grounds, 
had  already  been  drawn  within  her  fold  and  become 
interested  in  her  services ;  but  the  number  of  par- 
ishes remained  the  same,  and  the  list  of  the  clergy 
was  not  immediately  increased.  Those  who,  from 
any  cause,  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  be- 
came dissatisfied  with  the  religious  society  to  which 
they  belonged,  could  "  sign  off, "  and  still  continue  of 
the  same  faith,  without  being  subjected  to  personal 
liability  for  its  maintenance.  So  far  the  change  in 
the  law  was  rather  unfavorable  to  the  Christian  bod- 
ies that  had  gained  now  and  then  from  the  necessities 
of  the  case. 

The  power  of  Congregationalism,  however,  as  a 
State  religion  was  destroyed,  and  the  future  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut  was  brighter  for  the 
events  of  the  political  revolution.  Her  clergy  and 
leading  laymen  knew  this,  and  directed  their  move- 
ments with  reference  to  the  accomplishment  of  great 
and  ennobling  results.     Several  of  the  parishes,  par- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  175 

ticularly  in  Fairfield  County,  prior  to  this  date,  had 
established  permanent  funds,  the  interest  of  which 
was  applied  annually  to  the  support  of  their  rectors, 
and  thus  the  odious  system  —  as  many  termed  it  — 
of  taxation  for  church  purposes,  was  in  a  measure 
avoided.  These  funds  were  raised  in  some  parishes 
soon  after  the  erection  of  their  houses  of  worship, 
and  in  others  at  a  later  period,  and  in  all  they  were 
the  result  of  a  feeling  that  it  was  wise  to  provide  for 
religious  instruction  and  the  regular  administration 
of  the  ordinances  without  imposing  any  burdens  upon 
posterity.  Before  the  voluntary  system  had  been 
tried,  fears  were  entertained  that  the  interests  of 
Christianity  would  suffer,  if  the  civil  government  did 
not  compel  all  tax-payers  to  support  some  form  of 
public  worship,  and  hence,  after  the  repeal  of  the  law, 
the  disposition  to  create  or  enlarge  the  endowments 
of  the  parishes  was  encouraged.  The  scheme  ex- 
tended to  the  Congregationalists  as  well  as  to  the  Epis- 
copalians, and  ecclesiastical  funds  at  one  time  consti- 
tuted no  small  item  in  the  banking  capital  of  the 
State.  But  those  who  projected  and  urged  this 
scheme  lived  long  enough  to  acknowledge  that  while 
it  might  be  prudent  in  certain  cases,  it  was  unwise 
on  the  whole  to  make  such  provision;  for  people  are 
not  apt  to  esteem  very  highly  that  which  costs  them 
nothing.  The  children  of  each  generation  have  their 
duties  and  responsibilities,  and  in  entering  upon  their 
inheritance  they  should  understand  that  nothing  done 
by  their  fathers  can  excuse  them  from  bearing  the 
heat  and  burden   of  the   day  in  which  they  live. 

The  Annual  Convention,  which  met  at  Bridgeport 
in  1818,  was  attended  by  twenty-five  clergymen  and 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

thirty-six  lay-delegates.  Bishop  Hobart  was  present 
and  repeated  the  Charge  which  he  delivered  eight 
months  before  to  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  of  New 
York,  entitled,  "  The  Corruptions  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  contrasted  with  certain  Protestant  Errors."  It 
reveals  the  temper  of  the  times,  and  contains  state- 
ments which  ought  always  to  be  remembered.  A 
single  extract  will  show  how  firmly  he  vindicated  the 
primitive  institutions  of  our  Church  from  the  asper- 
sion that  they  "  symbolized  "  with  the  corruptions  of 
the  Papal  hierarchy. 

"  Be  not  intimidated  from  avowing  and  defending 
the  Scriptural  and  primitive  claims  of  Episcopacy, 
by  the  reproach,  that  you  are  verging  to  the  Church 
of  Rome.  The  reproach  discovers  little  acquaintance 
with  genuine  Episcopacy,  and  little  knowledge  of 
Papal  claims.  The  Episcopacy  which  it  is  the  privi- 
lege of  our  Church  to  enjoy,  was  the  glory  of  mar- 
tyrs and  confessors,  centuries  before  the  Papal  dom- 
ination established  itself  on  the  depression  of  Episco- 
pal prerogatives.  When  you  appeal  to  the  Epistles 
of  Timothy  and  Titus,  in  proof  of  the  succession  of 
an  order  of  men  to  the  Apostles,  in  their  powers  of 
ordination  and  supremacy  in  government,  can  you  be 
supposed  friendly  to  the  supremacy  of  the  supposed 
successor  of  St.  Peter,  in  regard  to  which  these  Epis- 
tles are  totally  silent  ?  When  you  quote  the  command 
of  the  martyr  Ignatius,  the  disciple  of  an  Apostle, 
'Let  no  man  do  any  thing  of  what  belongs  to  the 
Church  without  the  Bishop,'  can  you  be  accused  of 
vindicating  a  language  with  which  this  holy  martyr 
was  unacquainted, '  Let  nothing  be  done  but  in  sub- 
jection to  the  Pope  of  Rome  ? '     When  you  appeal  to  a 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  177 

succession  of  Fathers,  in  proof  of  a  fact  which  appears 
prominent  in  every  ecclesiastical  record,  that,  as  is 
expressed  by  the  judicious  Hooker,  the  '  outward  be- 
ing of  a  Church  consisted  in  the  having  of  a  Bishop  ; ' 
must  you  not  necessarily  oppose  a  very  different  dog- 
ma, of  which  the  ancient  Fathers  knew  nothing,  that 
the  Pope  is  the  visible  head  of  the  Church  on  earth, 
and  that  subjection  to  his  supremacy  is  a  necessary 
evidence  of  membership  in  the  Catholic  or  Universal 
Church  ?  They  who  suppose  that  a  primitive  Episco- 
pacy, such  as  our  Church  enjoys,  symbolizes  with  the 
Roman  hierarchy,  do  not  know,  or  do  not  consider  the 
facts,  that  Papal  and  Episcopal  prerogatives  are  at 
variance ;  that  the  Episcopal  tenet  of  the  succession 
of  Episcopal  power  from  the  Apostles,  and  through 
them  from  the  divine  Head  of  the  Church,  is  incom- 
patible with  the  Papal  claim,  that  the  Episcopal 
power,  as  well  as  jurisdiction,  is  derived  immediately 
and  solely  from  the  Roman  Pontiff;  and  hence,  that 
the  history  of  the  Church  affords  instances  of  the  at- 
tempts of  the  Pope  to  depress  the  order  of  bishops, 
and  of  their  resistance  to  his  inordinate  claims." * 

There  was  nothing  in  the  Constitution  of  the  Con- 
necticut Church  at  this  time  which  defined  the  num- 
ber or  order  of  the  Standing  Committee,  and  the 
Convention  of  1818,  having  first  resolved  that  it  should 
consist  of  five  members,  three  clergymen  and  two  lay- 
men, elected  Rev.  Dr.  Bronson,  Rev.  Messrs.  Shelton 
and  A.  Baldwin,  and  Samuel  W.  Johnson  and  Jonathan 
Ingersoll.  But  so  great  was  the  reverence  in  Con- 
necticut, for  the  old  practice  of  choosing  into  the 
Standing  Committee  clerical  members  alone,  that  it 

1  Charge,  pp.  18,  19. 
VOL.  II.  12 


178  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

was  resumed  the  next  year,  and  but  for  this  excep- 
tion, there  would  be  no  record  of  a  departure  from  it 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  Diocese. 

The  important  subject  which  had  been  before  the 
Church  for  five  years,  still  rose  above  all  others  ;  and 
acceptable  as  was  the  provisional  administration  of 
Bishop  Hobart,  it  was  quite  evident  that  the  clergy 
would  not  long  be  satisfied  with  this  temporary  supply, 
but  would  insist  on  the  election  of  a  permanent  Dioce- 
san. The  very  prosperity  of  the  parishes  helped  to  in- 
crease the  feeling  of  uneasiness,  and  the  condition  of 
the  Episcopal  fund  was  now  such  as  to  warrant  the 
steps  which  some  were  eager  to  take.  The  most  per- 
plexing question  was  that  of  the  candidate,  and  the 
policy  of  choosing  from  among  the  resident  clergy  of 
the  Diocese  was  again  urged,  and  a  brisk  canvassing 
carried  on  by  those  who  had  their  favorite  ends  to  ac- 
complish. Fitness  for  the  office,  and  claims  to  it  on 
the  score  of  eminent  services  rendered  to  the  Church, 
were  freely  discussed,  and  few  of  the  more  prominent 
clergymen  escaped  a  searching  scrutiny.  But  there 
were  leading  laymen,  and  rectors  occupying  positions 
of  importance,  who  were  not  inclined  to  this  policy, 
and  who  thought  it  best  to  settle  the  question  of  the 
Episcopate  by  looking  outside  of  the  Diocese  for  a 
candidate.  Their  course  provoked  the  displeasure  of 
the  other  party,  and  their  counsel  in  the  matter  was 
not  only  studiously  avoided,  but  efforts  at  first  appear 
to  have  been  made  to  weaken  their  influence,  or  to 
prevent  them  from  exercising  it  to  much  purpose. 

The  Rev.  B.  G.  Noble,  then  of  Middletown,  who 
took  a  deep  interest  in  the  election  of  a  Bishop,  from 
Jiis  partiality  for  a  favorite  candidate,  wrote  the  Rec- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  179 

tor  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  soon  after  the 
Annual  Convention  at  Guilford,  and  confessed  that  he 
had  opposed  his  becoming  a  member  of  the  Standing 
Committee,  though  he  rejoiced  that  he  was  one  of  the 
number  entrusted  with  the  reorganization  of  the 
Missionary  Society.  He  expressed  the  hope  that  "  no 
unpleasant  feelings"  had  been  excited  in  his  breast 
on  this  account,  and  stated,  moreover,  that  his  efforts 
to  "procure  an  election  did  not  originate  from  any 
dislike  of  Bishop  Hobart/' 

Mr.  Croswell,  in  his  reply,  recognized  his  opposition 
and  admitted  that  he  differed  with  him  respecting  the 
expediency  of  going  into  the  election  of  a  bishop, 
mainly  for  the  reason  that  he  believed  it  impossible 
then  to  find  a  candidate,  in  or  out  of  the  Diocese,  who 
would  unite  their  votes.  But  the  burden  of  his  an- 
swer bore  upon  another  point  in  which  he  was  per- 
sonally involved. 

Since  the  establishment  of  the  Institution  at  Chesh- 
ire, the  utmost  diligence  had  been  employed  to  ele- 
vate the  standard  of  literary  and  theological  attain- 
ment among  those  seeking  Holy  Orders,  and  as  far 
back  as  1806,  the  clergy  in  Convocation  voted,  that 
no  person  should  be  considered  a  candidate  in  this 
Diocese,  until  he  had  been  examined  by  the  Bishop, 
or  such  of  his  presbyters  as  he  might  appoint,  and 
that  previous  to  the  examination,  the  person  offering 
himself  must  have  studied  with  the  Bishop,  the  Prin- 
cipal of  the  Academy,  or  some  other  presbyter  in  the 
Diocese  at  least  one  year,  if  he  had  received  the  hon- 
ors of  a  college  or  some  incorporated  academy,  and 
two  years,  if  he  had  not  received  such  honors.  The 
aim  of  this  resolution  was  both  to  encourage  sound 


180  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

learning  in  the  Church  and  direct  theological  students 
to  Cheshire ;  and  at  the  time  of  its  adoption,  with 
two  or  three  exceptions,  the  clergy  of  Connecticut 
were  graduates  of  colleges. 

Dr.  Bronson,  the  President  of  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee in  1817,  and  the  Principal  of  the  Episcopal 
Academy,  adhered  to  the  sentiments  thus  deliberately 
expressed,  and  he  had  "  declared  his  unalterable  deter- 
mination never  to  sign  the  testimonials  of  a  candidate 
who  had  not  received  academical  honors."  It  was  to 
this  rule  as  being  injudicious  and  extra-canonical  that 
Mr.  Croswell  objected,  and  in  the  letter  just  referred 
to  he  went  on  to  say,  "  I  consider  every  such  declara- 
tion on  the  part  of  our  great  literary  characters,  as  a  slur 
upon  those  who  have  entered  the  ministry  without 
the  classical  attainments  required  by  the  canon.  I 
can  speak  feelingly  on  this  subject.  I  was  admitted 
to  orders  by  an  ecclesiastical  body  as  respectable  and 
learned  as  our  Standing  Committee.  I  came  in,  under 
the  dispensation,  humbly  trusting  that  industry  and 
perseverance  might,  in  some  measure,  compensate  for 
my  other  deficiencies.  There  are  probably  some 
others  much  in  the  same  situation,  and  I  assure  you 
that  if  they  are  affected  as  I  am  by  these  sweeping 
declarations  of  the  learned  doctor,  they  will  not  very 
readily  place  him  again  in  his  present  situation.  I  am 
thus  plain,  because  I  think  plainness  becomes  my  pro- 
fession. Nor  do  I  say  this  confidentially.  I  have  no 
disposition  to  disguise  my  feelings.  I  stand  in  no- 
body's way.  I  aspire  to  no  ecclesiastical  honors. 
Providence  has  already  placed  me  in  a  higher  and 
more  responsible  station  than  I  could  have  dared  to 
anticipate.     I  have  no  other  ambition  than  that  of 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  181 

being  useful  to  my  fellow  men.  I  would  excite  no 
man's  jealousy,  nor  would  I  feel  jealous  of  others."  * 

The  question  of  filling  the  vacancy  in  the  Episco- 
pate was  openly  discussed  at  the  Annual  Convention 
in  Bridgeport,  and  conspicuous  in  the  discussion  were 
Rev.  B.  G.  Noble  and  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner,  each  hav- 
ing his  favorite  candidate,  and  both  urging  an  imme- 
diate election.  But  the  minds  of  the  majority  were 
not  ready  for  this  step,  and  finally  one  of  the  most 
prominent  lay-members  put  the  question  to  rest  for 
the  time,  by  introducing  a  resolution,  which  was 
adopted,  that  "it  is  inexpedient  to  proceed  to  the 
election  of  a  bishop  at  this  Convention."  Still  there 
were  many  who  did  not  feel  that  the  matter  should 
be  left  precisely  in  that  shape,  and  in  the  afternoon, 
near  the  close  of  the  proceedings,  another  resolution 
was  adopted,  satisfactory,  no  doubt,  to  all  parties,  "  that 
the  Standing  Committee  be  requested  to  warn  a 
special  meeting  of  the  Convention  to  be  holden  in  the 
city  of  New  Haven,  on  the  first  Wednesday  of  June 
next,  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  a  bishop." 

The  day  thus  designated  was  also  the  day  fixed  by 
the  Constitution  for  the  annual  meeting,  and  hence 
opportunity  was  given,  in  the  mean  time,  for  fair 
inquiry  and  a  dispassionate  consideration  of  the 
claims  of  the  Diocese  and  of  the  merits  of  different 
candidates.  The  diversity  of  sentiment  upon  this 
subject  was  not  so  great  as  to  be  any  hinderance  to 
the  progress  of  the  parishes.  It  rather  kept  alive  a 
spirit  of  watchfulness,  and  the  gradual  inroads  of  the 
Church  upon  the  leading  denomination  of  the  State 
were  such  as  to  quicken  the  zeal  of  its  ministers.     A 

l  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


182  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

detailed  account  of  the  policy  pursued  to  check  this 
current  of  feeling  towards  Episcopacy  will  be  given 
further  on  in  the  pages  of  the  present  work. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  meeting  of  the  Con- 
vention at  New  Haven,  the  inexpediency  of  attempt- 
ing to  choose  a  bishop  from  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese 
became  more  apparent.  No  one  among  them  could 
go  into  the  canvass  with  any  prospect  of  securing  a 
respectable  majority,  for  age  or  other  disqualifications 
seemed  to  stand  in  the  way  of  all.  The  old  were  too 
old  for  the  cares  and  trials  of  the  office,  and  the  young 
were  too  young,  and  lacked  the  needed  wisdom  and 
experience.  A  few  of  the  most  influential  laity  in 
New  Haven  came  to  a  settled  determination,  in  case 
the  policy  of  electing  a  resident  clergyman  was 
pressed,  to  sustain  the  Rev.  Bethel  Judd,  then  Rector 
of  St.  James's  Church,  New  London,  as  better  fitted, 
on  the  whole,  for  the  office  than  any  presbyter  in  the 
Diocese.  While  his  piety  was  unquestioned,  and  his 
views  of  the  ministry  and  government  of  the  Church 
perfectly  sound,  he  was  especially  distasteful  to  those 
who  had  cherished  the  tone  of  early  Connecticut 
churchmanship  ;  for  he  made  no  secret  of  differ- 
ing from  his  brethren  on  certain  speculative  points  of 
theology,  and  leaned  to  what  he  himself  was  accus- 
tomed to  term  a  "  moderate  Calvinism."  Neither  his 
style  of  preaching  nor  his  manner  of  conducting  the 
public  services  of  the  Church  were  particularly 
attractive,  but  these  defects  were  disregarded  by  his 
friends,  in  consideration  of  his  other  qualifications ; 
and  those  who  had  brought  him  forward  as  a  candi- 
date, openly  avowed  their  intention  of  pressing  his 
election,  if  the  policy  of  choosing  from  the  Diocese 
was  not  relinquished. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  183 

Whether  the  knowledge  of  this  determination 
affected  the  result  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  the  clergy 
soon  changed  their  ground,  and  began  to  inquire  for  a 
suitable  person  abroad  to  elect  into  the  vacant  Epis- 
copate. Their  attention  was  directed  to  the  Rev.  T. 
C.  Brownell,  Assistant  Minister  of  Trinity  Church, 
New  York,  and  immediately  a  correspondence  was 
commenced  to  ascertain  from  those  who  might  know 
him  best  his  character  and  fitness  for  the  high  office. 
Among  other  letters  of  a  confidential  nature  was  one 
written  by  Mr.  Croswell  to  Bishop  Hobart,  and  a  short 
extract  from  the  reply  of  that  discerning  prelate  will 
show  how  far  his  advice  contributed  to  the  end  in  view. 
It  was  right  in  the  clergy  to  consult  him,  for  he  had 
provisional  charge  of  the  Diocese  and  was  concerned 
about  its  future  prosperity.  "  My  opinion  is,"  said  he, 
"  that  the  person  you  mention  will  serve,  if  he  be 
elected,  with  provision  for  his  adequate  support.  And 
speaking  prudently,  I  do  think  he  will  answer  exceed- 
ingly well.  The  more  I  know  of  him,  the  better  I 
think  of  him."  * 

The  Rev.  B.  Judd  also  wrote  to  the  New  Haven 
Rector  in  strong  commendation  of  the  proposed  can- 
didate, and  added,  "  If  I  did  not  think  my  want  of 
popularity  would  prejudice  the  contemplated  election 
of  Mr.  Brownell,  I  would  warmly  advocate  it ;  but 
presuming  that  silent  approbation  will  be  most  favor- 
able to  him,  I  have  thought  best  to  take  this  course. 
You  are  at  liberty,  however,  to  say  that  the  election 
of  Mr.  Brownell  has  the  approbation  of  your  friend 
and  brother  in  Christ."  2 

The  Convention  which  assembled  at  New  Haven  on 

1  MS.  Letter,  Feb.  20,  1819.  2  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


184  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  morning  of  the  second  of  June,  1819,  was  the 
largest  since  the  organization  of  the  Diocese,  being 
composed  of  thirty-three  clergymen  and  fifty-four  lay 
delegates.  Of  the  latter,  twenty-one  were  from  New 
Haven  County,  sixteen  from  Fairfield  County,  seven 
from  Litchfield  County,  five  from  Hartford,  Granby, 
and  Middletown,  and  the  remainder  from  towns  east 
of  the  Connecticut  River.  Bishop  Hobart  was  not 
present  on  the  first  day  of  the  session,  and  the  ser- 
mon at  the  opening  services  was  preached  by  the 
Rev.  Frederick  Holcomb.  After  the  usual  recess,  the 
Convention  came  together  at  3  o'clock  p.  m.,  in  the 
Senate  Chamber  of  the  old  State  House,  and  when 
the  preliminary  business  had  been  disposed  of,  the 
two  orders  separated  for  the  purpose  of  proceeding  to 
the  election  of  a  bishop  —  the  clergy  retiring  to 
Trinity  Church.  The  venerable  Dr.  Mansfield,  of 
Derby,  verging  upon  a  century,  met  his  brethren  for 
the  last  time  on  this  occasion,  and  presided  over  their 
deliberations  during  the  pendency  of  the  ballot.  The 
Rev.  Thomas  C.  Brownell  was  duly  and  unanimously 
elected ;  and  the  result  was  communicated  to  the  lay 
delegates,  who  postponed  their  action  until  9  o'clock 
the  next  morning,  when  they  reassembled,  and  by  a 
unanimous  vote  concurred  in  the  choice  of  the 
clergy. 

Thus  happily  was  terminated  the  long  struggle  to 
fill  the  vacant  Episcopate  of  Connecticut.  For  six 
years  the  subject  had  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
Church,  and  though  the  fund,  in  the  meantime,  had 
been  nursed  and  increased,  it  was  not  yet  large 
enough  to  yield  an  income  which  would  provide  a 
competent  salary  for  the  Diocesan.     The  committee 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  185 

appointed  to  wait  upon  the  Bishop  elect,  consisting  of 
Rev.  Messrs.  Shelton,  B.  Judd,  Wainwright,  and  Marsh, 
and  Messrs.  Samuel  W.  Johnson,  Daniel  Putnam,  and 
Nathan  Smith  had  a  difficult  and  delicate  office  to  dis- 
charge. The  Convention  had  not  formally  instructed 
them  to  offer  any  definite  salary.  They  were  to  solicit 
Mr.  Brownell's  acceptance,  "  and  to  adopt  such  meas- 
ures as  in  their  opinion  should  be  deemed  necessary 
for  his  clue  establishment  in  the  office  of  Bishop  of  this 
Diocese." 

But  he  occupied  a  prominent  position  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  with  an  ample  income  for  the  reasonable 
wants  of  his  family,  and  it  was  not  expected  that  he 
would  relinquish  it  for  the  dignified  post  tendered  him 
by  the  Church  in  Connecticut,  without  the  prospect 
of  an  adequate  support.  After  correspondence  and  a 
personal  interview,  the  committee  stated  that  fifteen 
hundred  dollars  per  annum  had  been  secured  for  his 
maintenance,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Convention,  they 
requested  him  to  accept  it,  and  "  take  the  Episcopal 
charge  of  the  Diocese,  as  soon  as  consecration  could 
be  effected."  In  his  communication,  signifying  to  the 
committee  his  acceptance  of  the  office,  Mr.  Brownell 
added,  "  With  respect  to  pecuniary  support,  I  do  not 
feel  any  great  solicitude.  I  have  no  doubt  but  the 
Diocese  will  cheerfully  take  upon  itself  the  mainten- 
ance of  my  family ;  and  till  the  Bishop's  Fund  is  ade- 
quate to  this  object,  I  think  it  proper  to  reserve  to 
myself  the  right  of  deriving  any  necessary  aid  from 
the  performance  of  such  parish  or  missionary  service 
as  may  not  be  incompatible  with  my  duties  to  the 
Diocese  at  large. 

"  I  shall  be  ready  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of  the 


186  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

office  to  which  I  have  been  elected  as  soon  after  the 
necessary  arrangements  for  my  consecration  are  com- 
pleted, as  my  domestic  affairs  will  permit.  And  I 
most  fervently  beseech  the  Great  Head  of  the  Church 
to  grant  his  blessing  on  our  humble  exertions  for  the 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut." 

Here  it  would  be  proper  to  introduce  some  notice 
of  the  previous  life  of  the  Bishop  elect.  But  an 
autobiography,  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Bishop 
Williams,  never  before  published,  and  kindly  given 
for  use  in  this  volume,  covers  that  period  so  well,  that 
without  adding  a  phrase,  or  altering  a  sentence  or  a 
word,  it  will  be  allowed  to  stand  by  itself,  as  it  de- 
serves, and  furnish  the  matter  for  the  next  chapter. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  session  of  this  Conven- 
tion Bishop  Hobart  delivered  an  address,  and  admitted 
Joseph  M.  Gilbert,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  to  the 
order  of  Deacons.  A  resolution  was  adopted,  empow- 
ering the  Treasurer  "  to  call  upon  the  delinquent 
parishes  to  pay  the  sums  due  from  them  respectively 
to  the  Bishop's  Fund,  or  secure  the  same  with  interest 
annually  on  or  before  the  1st  day  of  October."  Bishop 
Hobart  had  been  paid  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars 
as  a  remuneration  for  his  expenses  in  visiting  the 
Diocese  previously  to  1818,  and  a  like  amount  was 
appropriated  to  him  for  the  expense  of  his  visitations 
in  that  year.  The  aggregate  of  these  sums  was  about 
the  annual  income  of  the  Fund,  and  the  Convention 
could  not  meet  its  engagements  to  the  new  Diocesan 
unless  the  parishes  responded  with  promptitude  and 
cheerfulness  to  the  appeal  of  the  Treasurer,  and  bore 
their  fair  proportion  of  the  common  burden. 

The  vigor  with  which  the  work  of  the  Christian 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  187 

Knowledge  Society  was  undertaken  promised  success. 
The  receipts  from  all  sources  for  the  past  year  were 
about  nine  hundred  dollars,  and  three  itinerant  mis- 
sionaries had  been  sent  on  tours  of  observation  into 
the  most  neglected  portions  of  the  State,  and  their 
reports  showed  the  need  and  utility  of  their  services. 
"  Though  the  Society,"  said  the  Directors  in  closing 
the  annual  account  of  their  proceedings,  "  is  in  its 
infancy,  though  its  receipts  have  been  small,  and 
though  its  operations  have  not  yet  been  perfectly  sys- 
tematized, yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  its  effects 
have  already  proved  highly  beneficial  to  the  interests 
of  the  Church  and  the  cause  of  religion.  They  indulge 
the  pleasing  hope,  therefore,  that  it  will  still  receive 
the  fostering  care  of  the  Convention,  and  that  the 
friends  of  the  Church,  both  clergy  and  laity,  will 
afford  it  their  liberal  support  and  encouragement." 

It  has  been  mentioned  in  a  former  chapter,  that, 
during  the  progress  of  political  events  in  the  State, 
some  persons  were  led  to  declare  themselves  Episco- 
palians who  proved  of  no  great  advantage  to  the 
Church.  They  failed  to  adorn  it  with  the  fruits  of 
piety,  though  they  contributed  freely  of  their  means 
to  the  support  of  individual  parishes.  A  vein  of  secret 
Universalism  ran  through  the  minds  of  a  few  of  the 
laity,  and  it  was  suspected  that  one  or  two  of  the 
clergy  entertained  opinions  in  sympathy  with  the 
same  doctrine.  The  effect  was  perceptible  upon  their 
congregations,  and  instead  of  growth,  a  decline  in 
godliness  was  the  consequence.  The  statistics  of 
Christ  Church,  Norwich,  as  reported  in  1819,  gave  a 
total  of  forty  communicants  only,  and  yet  in  that 
place  and  "parts  adjacent,"  seventy  families  had  re- 


188  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

cently  conformed  to  the  Church.  The  Rector,  now 
far  advanced  in  life,  had  not  been  present  at  a  con- 
vention of  the  Diocese  but  once  in  ten  years,  and  if 
his  views,  tending  to  the  opposite  extreme  from  Cal- 
vinism, helped  to  produce  this  apparent  indifference 
to  the  deliberations  of  his  brethren,  he  still  remained 
at  his  post  —  a  quiet  and  cheerful  sentinel,  whom  his 
flock  had  learned  to  love  and  honor  for  the  virtues  of 
a  meek,  benevolent,  and  gentle  nature.  In  his  own 
account  of  the  number  of  his  communicants,  he  said 
it  was  always  small,  "  owing  to  the  prejudices  of  edu- 
cation, which  he  labored  faithfully,  but  ineffectually, 
to  overcome."  1 

lRev.  S.  B.  Paddock's  Historical  Discourse,  1840. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  189 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  THE  BISHOP  ELECT. 

Hartford,  May  22<1,  1858. 

Right  Rev.  and  Dear  Brother  :  In  fulfilment  of 
my  promise,  I  now  give  you  a  sketch  of  the  principal 
events  of  my  life,  previous  to  my  consecration  to  the 
Episcopate. 

I  was  born  at  Westport,  in  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts, on  the  19th  day  of  October,  in  the  year  1779. 
I  am  the  oldest  son  of  the  late  Sylvester  and  Mercy 
Brownell,  and  the  first  born  of  their  eleven  children  — 
five  sons  and  six  daughters. 

My  father  was  the  fourth  in  descent  from  George 
Brownell,  who  with  a  cousin  by  the  name  of  Graves, 
purchased  from  the  Narraganset  Indians  a  tract  of  land 
lying  on  the  seacoast,  extending  westward  from  the 
Acoaxset  River,  to  the  border  of  the  Rhode  Island 
Colony.  The  farm  on  which  my  father  resided  has 
continued  in  possession  of  the  family  from  the  time 
of  its  original  purchase,  to  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  when  he  removed  from  that  place  to  a  farm 
which  he  owned  in  the  town  of  Little  Compton, 
Rhode  Island.  He  died  at  the  latter  place,  about 
eighteen  years  ago,  in  the  eighty-second  $rear  of  his 
age.  My  mother  had  died  about  three  years  earlier, 
at  the  same  advanced  period  of  life. 

Of  the  lineage  of  my  mother,  Baylies  in  his  "  Me- 


190         HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

moirs  of  the  Plymouth  Colony"  (vol.  ii.  p.  140),  has 
the  following  note  :  — 

"  Thomas  Church,  the  eldest  son  of  the  Warrior 
(Col.  Benjamin  Church)  left  children ;  one  of  whom 
was  the  late  Hon.  Thomas  Church,  one  of  the  assist- 
ants of  the  Government  of  Rhode  Island,  and  colonel 
of  one  of  the  Rhode  Island  regiments  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was  born 
at  Little  Compton.  In  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  he 
removed  to  Dighton,  in  Massachusetts,  of  which  town 
he  was  a  representative  in  the  General  Court.  He 
died  there.  One  of  his  daughters  married  the  Hon. 
Sylvester  Brownell  of  Westport,  Massachusetts,  and  is 
the  mother  of  the  Right  Rev.  Thomas  Church  Brown- 
ell, Bishop  of  Connecticut." 

In  my  early  life,  I  received,  as  a  farmer's  son,  a 
common  country  school  education.  At  the  age  of 
fifteen,  when  no  schoolmaster  could  be  obtained  for 
the  district,  I  consented  to  act  as  schoolmaster  my- 
self for  several  months,  and  succeeded  in  securing 
the  respect  of  my  former  schoolmates. 

About  three  years  after  this,  with  the  approbation 
of  my  parents,  I  spent  a  few  months  with  our  clergy- 
man, the  Rev.  Dr.  Shepard,  in  the  study  of  English 
grammar,  and  the  rudiments  of  the  Latin  language. 
In  pursuance  of  his  advice,  and  with  the  approval  of 
my  parents,  I  resolved  on  obtaining  a  collegiate  edu- 
cation ;  and  became  a  student  of  "  Bristol  Academy," 
at  Taunton,  under  the  Rev.  Dr.  Daggett,  as  Principal. 

In  September,  of  the  next  year,  1800,  I  entered  as 
a  member  of  the  Freshman  class  in  the  College  at 
Providence,  then  under  the  presidency  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Maxcy. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  191 

In  the  summer  of  1802,  at  the  close  of  my  Sopho- 
more year,  the  Doctor  was  appointed  to  the  presi- 
dency of  Union  College,  Schenectady ;  and  having 
formed  a  strong  attachment  to  him,  I  accompanied 
him  and  his  family  to  their  new  residence,  and  became 
a  member  of  the  Junior  class  in  Union  College.  At 
the  end  of  two  years  I  was  graduated  there,  at  the 
head  of  my  class,  with  the  "  Valedictory." 

It  had  been,  for  some  time,  my  intention  to  devote 
myself  to  the  study  of  theology,  at  the  conclusion 
of  my  collegiate  course ;  and  it  was  the  earnest 
wish  of  my  parents  that  I  should  do  so.  I  had,  how- 
ever, begun  to  find  difficulties  in  the  Calvinistic  sys- 
tem of  theology,  in  which  I  had  been  reared ;  but 
resolved  to  make  myself  better  acquainted  with  it, 
before  coming  to  a  decision.  The  Eev.  Dr.  Nott  was 
then  a  distinguished  clergyman  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  at  Albany,  and  kindly  consented  to  take  me 
under  his  tuition.  He  had  the  faculty  of  presenting 
these  doctrines  under  a  somewhat  mitigated  form : 
but  advised  me  to  study  well  the  early  history  of  the 
Church  ;  and  for  this  purpose  he  put  into  my  hands 
the  "  Ecclesiastical  History  "  of  Mosheim.  After  read- 
ing a  portion  of  this  work,  I  enquired  of  my  instruc- 
tor whether  there  was  any  more  minute  history  of  the 
early  organization  of  the  Christian  Church ;  and  he  re- 
ferred me  to  Echard's  "  History  of  the  first  four  Cen- 
turies," which  he  had  in  his  library.  I  read  these 
volumes  with  deep  interest.  At  the  conclusion,  I 
remarked  to  my  instructor  that,  if  the  author  was 
correct,  the  first  organization  of  the  Christian  Church 
must  have  been  more  like  that  of  the  Episcopal  Com- 
munion, than  either  the  Presbyterian  or  Congrega- 
tional  denominations.     He    appeared    to    admit   this 


192  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

fact,  but  seemed  to  regard  it  as  a  matter  of  little  im- 
portance. It  was,  however,  not  so  with  me ;  and 
wishing  to  read  further  on  the  subject,  I  enquired 
what  work  he  could  recommend  ?  He  jocularly  re- 
plied, "  Go  to  Dr.  Beasley ;  he  can  tell  you."  I  took 
the  advice  in  earnest;  and  introducing  myself  to 
the  Rev.  Doctor,  enquired  if  he  could  recommend  to 
me  any  approved  work  on  the  first  organization  of 
the  Christian  Church?  He  went  to  his  library,  and 
bringing  out  the  work  of  Archbishop  Potter  on  that 
subject,  kindly  offered  me  the  loan  of  it.  The  peru- 
sal of  this  work  was  like  the  opening  of  a  new 
world  to  me.  I  read  the  whole  with  deep  attention. 
It  unfolded  to  me  a  new  aspect  of  Christianity.  The 
survey  afforded  to  me  unspeakable  relief;  but  it  was 
necessarily  attended  with  many  regrets.  I  had  no 
near  relation,  and  no  intimate  friend,  belonging  to 
the  Episcopal  Church ;  and  I  seemed  to  be  left  alone 
in  the  world,  in  regard  to  my  religious  sympathies. 

It  was  now  autumn ;  and  I  determined  to  return 
to  my  home,  for  the  winter,  and  to  take  time  for  a 
decision  in  regard  to  my  future  course. 

About  this  time,  Dr.  Maxcy,  the  President  of  Union 
College,  had  been  called  to  the  Presidency  of  the 
University  at  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  and  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Nott  was  elected  to  fill  his  place.  Soon  after  he 
had  accepted,  and  entered  on  his  new  duties,  I  was 
appointed  tutor  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  in 
the  institution.  After  due  reflection,  I  decided  to 
accept  the  station,  and  entered  on  the  discharge  of 
its  duties  on  the  5th  of  April,  1805. 

To  sustain  myself  reputably,  in  my  new  position, 
I  was  now  obliged  to  devote  all  my  leisure  hours  to 
the  study  of  the  ancient  classics. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  193 

At  the  Commencement  of  1807,  I  was  elected  Pro- 
fessor of  "  Belles  Lettres  and  Moral  Philosophy."  A 
new  department  of  learning  was  now  opened  to  me, 
which  necessarily  occupied  the  greater  portion  of  my 
thoughts  and  of  my  studies. 

Two  years  later,  I  was  again  requested  to  change 
my  professorship,  and  course  of  study.  The  sciences 
of  Chemistry  and  Mineralogy  were  then  in  their  in- 
fancy in  this  country.  But  Professor  Silliman,  of 
Yale  College,  had  now  returned  from  Europe,  with 
an  imposing  chemical  apparatus.  A  fine  cabinet  of 
minerals  had  been  procured  for  that  institution  from 
Colonel  Gibbs ;  and  these  acquisitions  had  given  to 
Yale  College  an  imposing  position,  which  could  not 
fail  to  stimulate  the  exertions  of  kindred  institutions. 
Accordingly,  a  department  of  Chemistry  and  Mine- 
ralogy was  established  in  Union  College,  at  the  Com- 
mencement, in  1809,  and  I  was  appointed  the  first  Pro- 
fessor ;  with  leave  to  spend  a  year  in  Europe,  in  the 
examination  of  kindred  institutions. 

In  the  autumn,  I  sailed  for  England  ;  having  been 
appointed,  by  President  Madison,  as  "Bearer  of  Des- 
patches "  to  Mr.  Pinckney,  the  American  Minister  in 
London,  and  to  General  Lyman,  the  United  States 
Consul  General.  It  was  during  the  famous  Embargo  ; 
and  the  only  conveyance  to  be  obtained  was  by  the 
British  Packet  from  New  York  to  Falmouth.  It  was 
also  during  the  famous  "  restrictive  system  "  of  Bona- 
parte, and  there  was  allowed  no  communication  be- 
tween England  and  the  Continent  of  Europe. 

My  travels  and  researches  were,  therefore,  neces- 
sarily confined  to  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  I  had 
taken  letters  of  introduction  to  Sir  Humphrey  Davy, 

VOL.   II.  13 


194  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Dr.  Singer,  Dr.  Babington,  Dr.  Marcet,  William  Allen, 
and  other  distinguished  scientific  gentlemen  in  Lon- 
don, and  found  a  free  access  to  their  cabinets,  labora- 
tories, and  lectures.  My  winter  was  thus  spent  very 
industriously  in  London. 

In  the  spring,  I  had  resolved  on  a  tour  through  the 
interior  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland ;  and  a 
well-educated  young  gentleman  of  New  York,  who 
had  been  my  fellow-passenger  on  ship-board,  and  fel- 
low-boarder in  London,  volunteered  to  accompany 
me.  Our  object  was  not  so  much  to  see  the  large 
towns,  as  to  examine  the  agricultural,  manufacturing, 
and  mining  operations  of  the  country ;  and  to  effect 
this  end  we  resolved  to  travel  on  foot.  Though  such 
a  mode  of  travelling,  by  gentlemen  in  our  situation, 
was  then  a  novelty,  we  found  no  reason  to  regret  our 
decision.  On  one  occasion,  indeed,  in  an  obscure  part 
of  Scotland,  and  when  separated  from  our  credentials, 
we  were  arrested  for  a  robbery  and  murder  which  had 
been  committed  in  the  vicinity ;  yet  we  found  but 
little  difficulty  in  making  our  real  character  under- 
stood, and  were  speedily  released. 

We  spent  a  considerable  time  in  exploring  the 
caverns  and  mines  of  Derbyshire  ;  and  in  visiting  the 
manufactories  of  Worcester,  Manchester,  and  Birming- 
ham ;  and  in  admiring  the  lake  and  mountain 
scenery  of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland.  We 
passed  through  the  southern  part  of  Scotland  to  Port 
Patrick ;  and  from  thence  crossed  over  to  Donahaddie, 
in  Ireland.  After  visiting  Lough  Neagh,  and  the 
Giant's  Causeway,  we  returned  by  the  eastern  coast 
of  Ireland  to  Belfast,  and  thence  by  packet,  again  to 
Port  Patrick,  in  Scotland.     From  the  latter  place  we 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  195 

pursued  our  way  along  the  western  coast  to  the  city 
of  Glasgow.  In  this  latter  place  we  spent  two  or 
three  weeks,  during  which  time  I  had  free  access  to 
the  laboratories  of  Dr.  Ure  and  Dr.  Cleghorn.  From 
Glasgow  we  proceeded  to  the  city  of  Edinburgh. 
Here  we  spent  a  few  weeks  in  examining  the  most 
interesting  objects  of  the  city  and  its  environs.  I 
found  every  facility  in  visiting  the  laboratories,  and 
attending  the  lectures  of  the  distinguished  chemists 
and  mineralogists,  who  have  added  so  much  to  the 
fame  of  the  ancient  capital  of  the  kingdom. 

Our  peregrinations  on  foot  terminated  in  this  city. 
It  had  come  to  be  time  for  our  return  to  America. 
We  took  the  mail  stage  for  Liverpool ;  from  whence 
we  embarked  in  a  merchant  ship  for  New  York.  After 
a  pleasant  passage  to  that  city,  I  reached  my  home 
at  Union  College,  just  in  time  to  commence  my  course 
of  chemical  instruction  at  the  opening  of  the  Fall 
term. 

I  had  brought  with  me  a  considerable  cabinet  of 
minerals,  and  sufficient  chemical  apparatus  to  enable 
me  to  illustrate  the  principles  of  chemical  science  to 
advantage.  Thus  had  passed  one  of  the  most  busy 
and  eventful  years  of  my  life  ;  and  I  now  entered  on 
my  course  of  instruction  with  zeal  and  industry. 

The  year  after  my  return  from  Europe,  on  the  6th 
of  August,  1811, 1  was  married  to  Charlotte  Dickin- 
son, of  the  city  of  Lansingburgh,  N.  Y.  She  was 
daughter  of  Tertullus  Dickinson,  once  a  partner  in 
mercantile  business  with  Col.  Beverly  Robinson,  of 
New  York,  and  her  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Dr. 
Huggeford,  an  eminent  physician  of  the  same  city. 

My  wife,  and  nearly  all  her  connections,  were  of 


196  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  Episcopal  Church  ;  and  we  were  married  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Butler,  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Troy.  I 
was  thus,  for  the  first  time,  brought  into  intimate  rela- 
tions with  Episcopalians. 

Previous  to  this,  I  had  become  convinced  of  the 
historical  and  Scriptural  grounds  of  Episcopacy,  yet  I 
had  not  felt  the  necessity  of  changing  my  church 
relations.  But  I  was  now  led  to  give  a  more  particu- 
lar examination  to  this  subject.  At  the  ensuing 
Easter,  I  took  a  pew  in  St.  George's  Church,  Schenec- 
tady, under  the  Rectorship  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Stebbins. 
On  the  5th  of  September,  1813, 1  was  baptized  in  that 
church  by  the  Rector.  Shortly  afterwards  I  was  con- 
firmed by  the  Bishop,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Holy 
Communion  of  the  Church. 

It  will  seem  strange  that  I  had  not  received  Chris- 
tian Baptism  at  an  earlier  period.  The  fact  of  the 
delay  is  to  be  accounted  for,  though  not  justified,  by 
the  state  of  society  in  which  I  was  reared. 

The  community  in  which  my  early  years  were  passed, 
were  either  Quakers,  or  Calvinistic  Congregation- 
alists.  My  parents  attended  public  worship  with  the 
latter  denomination  ;  and  though  they  had  a  distance 
of  five  miles  to  travel,  and  over  bad  roads,  they  were 
very  punctual  in  their  attendance,  and  were  careful 
to  provide  a  conveyance  for  a  good  portion  of  their 
family.  Though  always  exemplary  in  their  moral 
character,  they  were  not  technically  "  members  of  the 
Church."  But  when  they  came  to  be  about  forty 
years  old,  an  extensive  "  revival "  prevailed  in  their 
vicinity ;  they  became  subjects  of  it,  and  were  then 
baptized,  with  all  their  younger  children.  I  was  at 
that  time   some  thirty  miles  from  home,  at  Bristol 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  197 

Academy,  and  on  the  point  of  entering  college.  I 
may  acid,  too,  that  it  was  then  considered  almost  an 
unheard  of  thing  that  a  person  twenty  years  of  age 
should  receive  baptism,  unless  he  was  the  subject  of 
some  prevailing  revival,  and  had,  as  it  was  termed, 
"  experienced  a  change  of  heart ; "  a  change  which 
was  supposed  to  be  sudden,  if  not  instantaneous,  and 
wrought  by  the  irresistible  operation  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Soon  after  my  baptism,  confirmation,  and  admission 
to  the  Holy  Communion  of  the  Church,  I  began  to 
devote  my  leisure  hours  to  the  study  of  theology,  as 
it  is  taught  in  the  standard  Church  works  —  not,  how- 
ever, with  a  view  to  the  relinquishment  of  my  college 
avocations,  but  in  the  hope  that  I  might  add  to  my 
usefulness  by  receiving  Holy  Orders,  and  affording  a 
Sunday  supply  to  some  vacant  parishes  in  my 
vicinity. 

On  the  eleventh  of  April,  1816,  I  was  admitted  to 
the  Holy  Order  of  Deacons,  in  Trinity  Church,  New 
York,  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Hobart ;  and  soon  after- 
wards, in  the  same  place,  I  was  admitted  by  him  to 
the  Holy  Order  of  the  Priesthood. 

During  the  ensuing  summer  and  autumn,  I  offici- 
ated every  Sunday  in  vacant  parishes  within  twenty 
miles  of  Schenectady.  In  the  early  part  of  the  fol- 
lowing spring,  I  was  attacked  with  a  severe  disease, 
which  settled  on  my  lungs,  and  disqualified  me  for 
labor  through  the  ensuing  summer.  In  the  autumn, 
my  physician  advised  me  to  spend  the  coming  winter 
in  a  milder  climate,  and  I  determined  on  a  journey 
through  the  Southern  States.  Accordingly,  I  pro- 
ceeded, by  easy  stages,  as  far  south  as  Georgia  ;  spend- 


198  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

ing  a  few  days  in  each  principal  city  by  the  way,  and 
devoting  four  or  five  weeks  each  to  Charleston  and 
Savannah.  My  health  was,  all  the  time,  steadily  im- 
proving, and  I  found  myself  able  to  preach  at  least  a 
portion  of  nearly  every  Sunday. 

Returning  to  New  York  in  the  spring,  with  recov- 
ered health,  I  spent  a  Sunday  there,  and  preached  in 
Trinity  and  St.  Paul's  Churches.  There  was  then  a 
vacancy  in  the  ministry  of  Trinity  parish,  occasioned 
by  the  recent  defection  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  How.  Shortly 
after  returning  to  my  home  in  Schenectady,  I  received 
an  invitation  to  fill  that  vacancy.  The  overture  was 
altogether  unexpected.  But  as  I  received  private 
letters  from  the  Bishop,  who  was  Rector  of  the  parish, 
and  also  from  his  two  assistants,  assuring  me  that  my 
acceptance  would  be  agreeable  to  them  personally,  I 
decided  on  a  change  of  occupation,  after  the  ensuing 
College  Commencement,  if  my  health  should  then 
appear  to  be  sufficiently  reestablished. 

Accordingly,  in  the  ensuing  month  of  August,  I 
entered  on  the  duties  of  Assistant  Minister  of  Trinity 
Church,  New  York,  and  removed  my  family  to  that 
city  on  the  following  October. 

My  residence  in  the  city  of  New  York  was  of  brief 
duration,  but  was,  in  all  respects,  agreeable.  I  was 
received  with  great  cordiality  by  the  Bishop,  and  by 
my  brethren  of  the  clergy,  and  with  all  kindness  by 
the  people  among  whom  I  was  called  to  minister.  I 
supposed  I  had  then  entered  upon  the  labors  of  my 
entire  subsequent  life. 

But,  in  the  following  June,  I  was  waited  on  by  a 
delegation  from  Connecticut,  informing  me  of  my 
election   to   the   Episcopal   charge  of   that   Diocese. 


m  CONNECTICUT.  199 

Such  an  event  was  altogether  unexpected  by  me.  I 
had  received  no  previous  intimation  of  it ;  and  having 
entered  the  sacred  ministry  so  late  in  life,  there  would 
have  been  but  little  probability  that  I  should  ever  be 
called  to  one  of  its  highest  stations.  But  though  such 
an  office  was  not  to  be  sought,  nor  expected,  it  was 
not  to  be  hastily  declined. 

After  seeking  the  Divine  direction,  after  consulta- 
tion with  my  Bishop  and  other  friends,  and  under 
assurances  of  the  unanimity  of  my  election,  I  decided 
on  accepting  the  solemn  responsibilities  of  the  office 
to  which  I  was  called. 

I  was  accordingly  consecrated  to  the  Episcopal 
office,  in  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  on  the  twenty- 
seventh  clay  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  nineteen,  by  the  Rt.  Rev. 
William  White,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  the  Rt. 
Rev.  John  Henry  Hobart,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  New  York, 
and  the  Rt.  Rev.  Alexander  Viets  Griswold,  D.  D., 
Bishop  of  the  Eastern  Diocese. 

With  what  degree  of  faithfulness,  and  with  what 
success,  I  have  fulfilled  the  duties  of  the  sacred  office, 
it  becomes  not  me  to  speak.  I  entertain  a  most 
grateful  sense  of  the  indulgence  and  kindness  with 
which  my  imperfect  services  have  been  received  by 
the  Diocese. 

Commending  the  people  of  the  Diocese,  and  your- 
self, as  my  assistant  and  successor,  to  the  keeping  of 
Almighty  God, 

I  remain  your  affectionate  friend  and  brother, 
THOMAS   CHURCH  BROWNELL 
Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Williams. 


200  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER   XV. 

THE  CHURCH  DEFENDED;  COVERT  ATTACKS;  "SERIOUS  CALL;" 
AND  "  SOBER  APPEAL." 

A.  D.  1819. 

It  was  natural  for  an  opponent  to  watch  with  some 
degree  of  alarm  the  prosperity  of  the  Church.  But 
the  part  they  sustained,  during  the  high  political  ex- 
citements through  which  the  State  had  just  passed, 
rendered  Episcopalians  particularly  obnoxious  to  the 
Congregational  ministers,  and  new  attempts  were 
made  to  weaken  or  destroy  their  influence.  "  An 
association  of  gentlemen  "  was  formed  professedly  for 
the  purpose  of  "inculcating  the  doctrines  which  have 
ever  prevailed  in  the  great  body  of  the  Congregational 
and  Presbyterian  Churches ; "  but  really,  as  one  of  its 
members  incautiously  avowed,  "  to  write  down  the 
Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut."  The  question 
of  Orders  was  revived,  and  among  the  first  fruits  of 
this  association  was  a  doctrinal  tract  entitled,  "  Plain 
reasons  for  relying  on  Presbyterian  ordination."  It 
was  the  third  in  the  series  and  extensively  circulated, 
and  triumphantly  put  into  the  hands  of  churchmen 
as  an  unanswerable  argument.  Though  written  with 
some  degree  of  cant  and  bitterness,  mingled  with 
much  affected  candor  and  liberality,  the  tract  ad- 
vanced everything  that  could  be  embraced  in  so 
short  a  compass,  in  favor  of  Presbyterian  ordination, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  201 

and  the  subject  of  it  was  regarded  by  the  author,  who 
withheld  his  name,  as  of  "the  highest  practical  impor- 
tance." He  labored  to  show  among  other  things  that 
the  succession  in  the  Episcopal  Church  is  Presby- 
terian ;  that  all  ministers  of  the  Gospel  are  successors 
of  the  Apostles,  and  that  any  claim  on  the  part  of 
bishops  to  "  a  superior  rank  is  nothing  less  than  usur- 
pation." 

The  pamphlet  was  a  reproduction  of  the  same 
reasonings  which  had  often  been  met,  but  like  every 
former  attempt  of  the  kind,  it  was  destined  to  enjoy 
but  a  temporary  triumph.  It  called  forth  a  very  able 
and  conclusive  answer  from  an  Episcopal  clergyman 
in  Connecticut,1  under  the  title  of  "  Presbyterian  Or- 
dination Doubtful,"  in  two  parts,  the  first  of  which 
contained  the  Scripture  evidences  on  the  matter  in 
controversy,  and  the  other  the  historical  testimony. 
The  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge 
had  already  published  an  address  on  the  primitive 
government  of  the  Christian  Church  as  proved  by 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  in  which  the  difference  between 
Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians  was  fairly  stated,  and 
the  claims  of  a  threefold  ministry  modestly  but  firmly 
vindicated.  Mr.  Judd's  work,  two  thousand  copies  of 
which  were  published  and  distributed  by  this  society, 
was  clear  in  its  reasonings  and  courteous  in  its  style. 
Iu  no  single  instance  was  he  drawn  by  the  provoca- 
tion of  his  opponent  into  any  undue  warmth  or  the 
least  degree  of  asperity. 

The  learning  displayed  in  this  controversy  was  not 
so  great,  and  the  researches  made  by  the  respective 

1  Bethel  Judd.     The  author  of  the  doctrinal  tract  to  which  he  replied 
was  Luther  Hart,  the  Congregational  minister  at  Plymouth. 


202  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

authors  were  not  so  extensive  as  in  the  earlier  and 
more  notable  controversy  on  the  same  subject  be- 
tween Dr.  Miller,  a  Presbyterian  divine  of  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  Dr.  Bowclen.  In  the  latter  case  Dr. 
Miller  challenged  to  the  onset,  and  wrote  his  "  Letters 
concerning  the  Constitution  and  Order  of  the  Chris- 
tian Ministry,"  at  his  leisure  and  in  his  best  and  most 
fascinating  style.  He  assailed  Episcopacy  in  a  way 
well  fitted  to  satisfy  those  who  had  rather  lean  on 
others  than  think  and  search  for  themselves.  At  that 
period  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  were  but  little 
known  in  this  country,  and  their  testimony  was 
locked  up  in  Greek  and  Latin,  where  few  were  able  to 
find  it  or  to  verify  another's  citations.  Dr.  Bowden 
was  a  master  in  patristic  learning,  and  stepped  for- 
ward to  vindicate  an  abused  and  calumniated  church, 
as  well  as  to  show  how  much  there  really  was  in  the 
history  of  the  first  and  second  centuries  to  disprove 
the  doctrine  of  ministerial  parity.  In  replying  to 
these  "  Letters,"  he  sometimes  exceeded  the  bounds 
of  a  gentle  nature  and  wrote  with  severity,  especially 
when  he  detected  his  opponent  in  mutilating  and  mis- 
representing the  Fathers,  and  making  them  to  say 
things  they  never  dreamed  of,  and  to  bear  testimony 
against  truths  which  they  had  spent  their  whole  lives 
in  defending. 

Reference  to  Dr.  Miller's  work,  as  authority  for  the 
historical  evidence  in  favor  of  ministerial  parity,  was 
made  by  the  writer  of  the  doctrinal  tract,  in  a  re- 
joinder to  "  Presbyterian  Ordination  Doubtful,"  and  at 
a  later  period  zealous  champions  arose  in  other  quar- 
ters and  lent  their  support  to  the  common  cause  of 
crushing  "  Episcopal  claims."    In  1822,  five  years  after 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  203 

the  author  had  gone  to  his  rest,  and  nearly  twenty 
since  the  controversy  was  first  started,  James  Wilson, 
a  Congregational  minister  in  Providence,  R.  I.,  pub- 
lished in  a  pamphlet  of  one  hundred  pages,  an  elabo- 
rate "  Review  of  the  Letters  of  the  late  Rev.  John 
Bowden,  D.  D. ;  "  and  though  not  fully  concurring  in 
the  Presbyterian  idea  of  ordination,  he  left  as  much 
unsettled  as  ever,  the  question  of  what  he  was  pleased 
to  call  "  Congregational  Episcopacy." 

The  friends  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  were 
puzzled  at  this  time  to  know  precisely  on  what  ground 
the  Congregationalists  meant  to  rest.  In  seeking 
shelter  under  the  standard  of  Presbyterianism,  they 
virtually  abandoned  their  own  system  in  regard  to  a 
valid  ministry,  for  according  to  this  no  lineal  suc- 
cession from  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  is  neces- 
sary. According  to  this  system,  our  Lord's  commission 
to  the  Apostles  confers  full  and  complete  authority  to 
preach  the  Gospel  and  administer  the  sacraments,  on 
every  person  who  is  set  apart  for  that  purpose,  either 
by  "  delegated  brethren,"  or  "  ruling  elders."  The 
earliest  divines  of  New  England,  as  it  has  already 
been  seen,1  were  troubled  about  the  matter  of  lay- 
ordination.  Dr.  Stiles,  President  of  Yale  College,  re- 
ferred to  this  in  his  Election  Sermon  before  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  May,  1783.  He  seems  to  have  used 
Congregational  and  Presbyterian  as  synonymous  terms; 
and  visions  of  the  future  greatness  of  the  body  with 
which  he  was  connected  floated  before  his  mind,  and 
emboldened  him  in  his  ecstasy  to  make  assertions 
which  do  not  place  him  among  the  most  sagacious 
and  far-seeing  men  of  his  age. 

1  Vol.  i.  p.  40. 


204  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

"  When  we  look  forward,"  said  he,  "  and  see  this 
country  increased  to  forty  or  fifty  millions,  while  we 
see  all  the  religious  sects  increased  into  respectable 
bodies,  we  shall  doubtless  find  the  united  body  of  the 
Congregational,  Consociated,  and  Presbyterian  Churches, 
making  an  equal  figure  with  any  of  them ;  or  to  say 
the  least,  to  be  of  such  magnitude  as  to  number,  that  it 
will  be  to  no  purpose  for  other  sects  to  meditate  their 
eversion.  This,  indeed,  is  enterprised,  but  it  will  end 
in  a  sisyphean  labor.  There  is  the  greatest  prospect 
that  Ave  shall  become  thirty  out  of  forty  millions, 
and  while  the  avenues  to  civil  improvement  and  pub- 
lic honors  will  here  be  equally  open  to  all  sects,  so  it 
will  be  no  dishonor  hereafter  to  be  a  Presbyterian,  or 
of  the  religious  denomination  which  will  probably 
ever  make  the  most  distinguished  figure  in  this  great 
republic.  And  hereafter  when  the  world  shall  behold 
us  a  respectable  part  of  Christendom,  they  may  be 
induced  by  curiosity,  with  calmness  and  candor  to  ex- 
amine whether  something  of  Christianity  may  not 
really  be  found  among  us."  1 

From  this  statement,  President  Stiles  went  on  to 
say,  "  Our  churches  are  as  completely  reformed  and 
as  well  modelled  as  can  be  expected  till  the  millen- 
nium." He  devoted  ten  pages  of  his  extraordinary 
sermon  to  the  matter  of  ordination,  and  in  the  history 
of  it  in  New  England,  which  it  came  within  his  prov- 
ince to  give,  he  made  some  admissions  or  confessions 
that  would  be  spurned  by  those  who  do  not  believe  a 
lineal  succession  from  Christ  and  His  Apostles  neces- 
sary to  a  valid  ministry. 

"  The  invalidity  of  our  ordinations  is  objected  against 

1  Sermon,  pp.  57,  58. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  205 

us,  and  so  of  consequence  the  invalidity  of  all  our 
official  administrations.  And  now  that  we  are  upon 
the  matter,  give  me  leave  to  exhibit  a  true,  though 
summary  state  of  it,  as  the  result  of  a  very  full,  labo- 
rious, and  thorough  inquiry.  It  was  the  mistaken 
opinion  of  some  of  our  first  ministers  in  New  England 
(than  whom  there  never  was  a  more  learned  collec- 
tion, for  they  embosomed  all  the  theological  and  eccle- 
siastical erudition  of  all  ages),  it  was,  I  say,  their 
opinion,  that  the  power  of  ordination  of  all  church 
officers  was  in  the  church,  by  their  elders.  They  well 
knew,  from  ecclesiastical  and  Scripture  antiquity,  that 
the  power  of  election  was  there ;  and  they  judged 
ordination  the  lesser  act ;  but  their  great  reason  was, 
that  the  church  might  not  be  controlled  by  any  ex- 
terior authority,  whether  Episcopal  or  Presbyterial, 
and  so  no  more  be  harassed  by  Bishops'  courts,  or 
any  other  similar  tribunals.     .     .     . 

"  Immediately  upon  publishing  the  Cambridge  plat- 
form, 1648,  our  brethren  in  England  remonstrated 
against  allowing  lay  ordination.  They  alleged  that 
we  had  no  example  in  Scripture,  and  not  only  that  it 
was  safest  to  proceed  in  this  way,  but  that  it  was  the 
only  Scriptural  ground.  These  arguments  convinced 
our  fathers,  and  they  immediately  set  about  to  rem- 
edy the  practice,  which  had  hitherto,  providentially, 
wrought  no  mischief,  as  the  body  of  the  pastors  had 
been  ordained  by  the  Bishops."  2 

Lay  ordination,  in  the  judgment  of  President  Stiles, 
"was  almost  the  only  error  of  moment,"  which  the 
ministers  of  New  England  fell  into,  in  the  first  century 
of  its  settlement ;  but  he  seemed  to  think  that  even 

1  Sermon,  pp.  59,  62. 


206  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

this  irregularity  was  not  to  be  condemned,  since  it 
"  was  done  by  the  advice  and  under  the  inspection  " 
of  those  whom  English  bishops  had  ordained  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry.  These  bishops  did  not  intend, 
however,  according  to  his  own  admission,  to  "  commu- 
nicate ordaining  powers,"  and  every  presbyter  of  the 
Church  of  England,  in  his  vow  of  submission  to  Epis- 
copal authority,  made  when  he  answered  to  the  ques- 
tions in  the  Ordinal,  gave  a  very  solemn  pledge  that 
he  would  exercise  no  such  powers.  The  theory, 
therefore,  of  a  lineal  succession  from  Christ  and  the 
Apostles,  maintained  in  this  way,  was  a  virtual  sur- 
render of  the  principle  of  lay  ordination.  It  was 
worth  nothing  to  the  cause  of  Congregationalism,  and 
it  did  not  help  the  Presbyterian  idea  of  ministerial 
parity.  But  Wilson  in  his  "  Review  of  the  Letters  "  of 
Bowden,  adhered  to  it,  and  denied  what  he  found 
stated  in  the  work  which  he  was  criticising,  that  "  In 
New  England,  there  have  been  numerous  instances 
of  lay  ordination."  Speaking  of  her  Independent 
Churches,  he  said,  "  Nor  does  it  distinctly  appear,1  that 
more  than  two  lay  ordinations,  actually  such,  ever 
occurred  in  those  churches  ;  the  first  was  at  "Woburn, 
Massachusetts,  in  1642,  and  the  last  at  Stratford,  in 
Connecticut,  in  1665.  This  last  instance  was  the  lay 
ordination  of  Israel  Chauncey."  2  At  the  same  time, 
he  frankly  admitted  that  appearances  sanctioned  in 
some  degree  the  statement  of  Dr.  Bowden,  because 
the  installment  or  the  introduction  of  ministers,  al- 

1  Review,  etc.,  p.  89. 

2  "  His  ordination  was  in  the  Independent  mode.  It  has  been  the  tra- 
dition that  Elder  Brinsmaid  laid  on  hands  with  a  leather  mitten.  Hence  it 
has  been  termed  the  leather  mitten  ordination."  —  Trumbull's  Hist,  of 
Conn.,  vol.  i.  p.  464. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  207 

ready  ordained,  into  the  pastoral  charge  of  a  particu- 
lar congregation,  was  performed  by  lay-brethren,  and 
this,  from  the  beginning,  was  termed  ordination.  In 
establishing  their  rules  of  ecclesiastical  polity,  the 
Puritans  could  not  quite  forget  the  obligation  due  to 
English  bishops,  and  still  they  acted  as  if  there  could 
be  no  true  religion  unless  they  kept  themselves  "  out 
of  sight  of  mitres  and  the  purple." 

The  controversy  upon  the  subject  of  the  ministry 
was  not  yet  closed,  when  another  attack  was  made 
upon  the  Church,  different  from  all  former  ones,  and 
encouraged  by  men  of  the  highest  standing  and  re- 
sponsibility in  the  Congregational  ranks.  A  pamphlet 
of  twenty-four  pages  entitled,  "  A  Serious  Call  to 
those  who  are  without  the  Pale  of  the  Episcopal 
Church.  By  a  Consistent  Churchman,"  was  printed 
and  freely  circulated  in  Connecticut,  where  it  was 
designed  to  produce  its  sinister  effect.  It  was  not  one 
of  the  doctrinal  tracts  referred  to  in  the  beginning 
of  this  chapter :  but  it  was  read  to  the  "  associate 
gentlemen,"  who  relished  it  highly  and  advised  its 
publication.  No  imprint  was  given,  and  the  hypoc- 
risy of  the  title-page  was  in  keeping  with  the  mis- 
representation and  irony  of  the  whole  pamphlet. 
The  author  professed  to  be  a  "  Consistent  Church- 
man," though  he  was  a  rigid  Congregationalist,1  and 
penned  his  work  with  the  deliberate  intention  of  mis- 
leading his  readers.  He  addressed  it  to  Presbyteri- 
ans, Congregationalists,  Baptists,  Methodists,  Quakers, 
and  all  of  every  denomination  who  do  not  belong  to 

1  Rev.  Bennet  Tyler,  then  the  Congregational  minister  at  South  Britain, 
in  Southbury,  and  afterwards  the  first  President  of  the  Theological  Insti- 
tute of  Connecticut,  located  at  East  Windsor  Hill. 


208  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  Episcopal  Church ;  and  he  began  in  this  startling 
manner :  — 

"  Fellow  travellers  to  eternity  :  I  come  to  you  on  a 
momentous  errand  ;  and  I  beg  your  patient  and  candid 
attention  to  my  message.  You  may,  perhaps,  wish  to 
know  who  I  am,  and  what  claims  I  have  to  your  re- 
gard ;  but  this  is  not  the  time  to  gratify  an  idle  curi- 
osity. If  I  were  passing  your  dwellings  in  the  dead  of 
night,  and  saw  them  in  flames,  while  you  were  quietly 
reposing  in  sleep,  I  should  not  stop  to  tell  you  my 
name  or  place  of  abode,  till  I  saw  you  safe  from  your 
danger.  This  is  but  a  faint  emblem  of  the  danger  from 
which  I  am  now  to  exhort  you  to  flee.  Let  it  suffice, 
then,  to  say  (and  here  let  your  curiosity  cease),  that  I 
am  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  the  only  Church 
on  earth  ;  and  my  message  is,  to  inform  you,  that  you 
must  become  members  of  the  same,  or  be  lost  for 
ever.  You  may  be  startled  at  such  a  suggestion  ;  but 
count  me  not  your  enemy  because  I  tell  you  the 
truth.  The  most  unwelcome  is  sometimes  the  most 
friendly  message ;  and  if  what  I  say  shall  cause  pain, 
it  is  the  pain  inflicted  by  a  faithful  surgeon,  who 
wounds  only  to  heal.  If  you  are  all  in  the  broad 
road  to  destruction,  it  is  certainly  high  time  that  you 
knew  it ;  and  he  who  sounds  a  timely  alarm  in  your 
ears,  acts  the  part  of  the  most  unfeigned  friendship. 
If  it  be  a  fact,  that  while  you  remain  out  of  the 
Church  you  are  aliens  from  the  commonwealth  of 
Israel  and  strangers  from  the  covenants  of  promise, 
having  no  hope,  and  without  God  in  the  world ; 
surely,  no  means  should  be  left  untried  to  effect  your 
conversion." 

The   author   professed   to  derive   support   for   his 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  209 

premises  from  two  sources  —  the  Word  of  God;  and 
the  writings  of  Bishop  Hobart,  Rev.  Thomas  Y.  How, 
D.  D.,  and  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner.  When  he  had  made 
all  his  citations  and  been  liberal  in  pathetic  appeals, 
he  was  not  content  until  he  added  an  appendix,  con- 
taining animadversions  upon  the  conduct  of  incon- 
sistent churchmen.  The  conclusion  of  the  pamphlet 
accords  with  the  spirit  of  the  introduction. 

"  Let  the  syren  song  of  charity,  then,  be  sung  no 
longer.  Let  all  the  ministers  of  our  Church  assume  a 
tone  of  consistency.  Let  them  no  longer  crouch  to  their 
adversaries,  nor  tremble  at  the  epithet  of  bigot.  Let 
them  not  be  afraid  or  ashamed  to  proclaim  upon  the 
house-top,  that  out  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  there  is  no 
salvation.  Let  the  pulpit  thunder  and  the  press  groan, 
*  Episcopacy  or  Perdition.'  Let  the  sound  ring  from 
house  to  house,  from  neighborhood  to  neighborhood, 
from  town  to  town.  Let  it  be  wafted  upon  every 
breeze,  and  echo  from  every  hill.  Let  it  be  pro- 
claimed in  the  highways  and  hedges,  in  the  street  and 
at  the  market,  in  the  tavern  and  the  grog  shop,  '  Epis- 
copacy or  Perdition  ; '  and  no  doubt  the  poor  Presby- 
terians and  Baptists  and  Methodists  will  be  frightened 
out  of  their  wits,  and  rush  into  the  Church  by  scores 
and  by  hundreds.  The  Saybrook  Platform  will  be 
cast  to  the  moles  and  the  bats,  no  man  will  dare  have 
a  Bible  without  a  Prayer-Book  by  its  side,  and  at  no 
distant  period,  as  Dr.  How  predicts,  Episcopalians  will 
be  the  predominant  sect  in  Connecticut." 

The  vein  of  irony,  running  through  the  whole  pro- 
duction, was  so  well  concealed,  that  a  careless  reader, 
dipping  into  its  pages  here  and  there  and  not  examin- 
ing the  authorities  cited,  might  be  led  to  think  the 

VOL.   II.  14 


210  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

u  Consistent  Churchman  "  was  in  sober  earnest.  Some 
persons1  were  undoubtedly  deceived  in  this  way  until 
the  scheme  was  exposed. 

By  a  chain  of  providential  circumstances  the  Rector 
of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven  (Rev.  Mr.  Croswell), 
became  acquainted  with  the  fact  that  the  proof  sheets 
had  been  revised  and  corrected  by  his  neighbor,  the 
Pastor  of  the  First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  and  that  the 
publisher  was  a  Congregational  deacon,  who  sustained 
intimate  relations  to  this  pastor.  Scarcely  had  the 
work  come  from  the  press  before  he  was  ready  with 
an  answer  in  the  shape  of  "  A  Sober  Appeal  to  the 
Christian  Public."  Called  out  on  this  occasion  by  a 
sense  of  duty  to  the  interests  of  religion,  he  spoke 
with  severity  of  the  obvious  design  of  the  pamphlet, 
which  was  "  to  slander  and  defame  the  ministers  and 
members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  —  to 
misrepresent  its  principles  and  doctrines  —  and  to  rid- 
icule and  disparage  its  ordinances."  He  vindicated 
the  reputation  of  Bishop  Hobart  both  as  a  divine  and 
a  man,  and  pronounced  the  extracts  from  his  publica- 
tions to  be  "  garbled,  distorted,  or  disjointed,"  and 
not  warranting  the  inferences  drawn  by  a  writer  who 
"  opened  the  first  page  of  his  work  with  an  egregious 
falsehood."  He  characterized  the  following  paragraph 
relating  to  baptism  as  "  a  vulgar  profanity  —  a  cold- 
blooded mockery  in  its  style  and  manner,  which  none 
but  the  worst  of  infidels  have  ever  equalled."  And 
surely  it  is  something  beyond  mere  burlesque. 

"  No  doubt  hell  is  paved  with  the  skulls  of  infants,  for 

1  The  story  is  told  of  a  poor  post-rider  —  a  zealous  churchman  —  who 
thinking  the  Serious  Call  was  meant  to  be  serious,  filled  his  saddle-bags 
with  the  pamphlets  and  scattered  them  along  on  his  route  into  the  country, 
in  the  full  belief  that  he  was  doing  the  Church  good  service. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  211 

no  other  reason  but  because  they  were  never  sprinkled 
by  an  Episcopal  Priest ! !  Oh  !  it  is  enough  to  chill 
one's  blood  in  his  veins,  and  to  make  every  tender 
hearted  mother  run  crazy,  to  think  how  many  poor  in- 
fants must  be  eternally  miserable  when  they  might 
have  been  so  easily  saved.  0  ye  parents,  how  can  you 
suffer  your  children  to  remain  unregenerate !  Fly 
with  them  to  the  Church.  Have  them  baptized  with- 
out delay.  Then,  they  will  be  children  of  God  and  in- 
heritors of  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  1 

Mr.  Croswell  referred  to  the  rules  of  the  Congrega- 
tional order,  prohibiting  the  baptism  of  infants,  except 
in  certain  cases,  but  in  his  opinion,  they  did  not  jus- 
tify the  ridiculing  of  those,  "  who,  acting  as  ministers 
of  Christ,  conceive  themselves  bound  by  his  command 
to  baptize  all  who  are  presented  for  that  purpose, 
agreeably  to  the  rules  of  the  Gospel." 

He  might  have  turned  back  to  a  period  when  there 
was  a  diversity  of  opinion  among  Congregationalists 
about  the  proper  subjects  of  baptism.  One  hundred 
years  before,  the  "  half-way  covenant  system,"  as  it  was 
called,  had  occasioned  strife  and  contention  in  the 
colony,  and  even  towards  the  end  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  some  ministers  of  the  Standing  Order,  with 
their  churches,  fell  under  the  censure  of  their  brethren 
for  adhering  to  it  and  inclining  to  the  merciful  side  of 
the  question.  But  the  views  of  those  who  favored 
admitting  only  "  professors  of  piety  "  to  the  commu- 
nion, and  only  the  children  of  such  persons  to  baptism, 
were  now  beginning  to  triumph,  and  soon  the  "half- 
way covenant,"2  which  had  caused  so  much  trouble 

1  Serious  Call,  p.  16. 

2  This  provided  that  baptized  persons  of  good  moral  character,  solemnly 


212  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

in  various  churches,  was  generally  abandoned  in  Con- 
necticut and  throughout  New  England. 

The  pious  fraud,  if  it  could  be  thus  described,  was 
so  well  answered  that  it  is  not  known  whether  "  A 
Consistent  Churchman  "  made  any  further  public  dem- 
onstration. Mr.  Croswell  concluded  his  "  Appeal " 
with  an  allegory  intended  to  match  the  startling  para- 
graph already  cited  from  the  first  page  of  the  "  Serious 
Call."  "If  I  were  to  awaken  in  the  dead  of  night, 
and  find  my  dwelling  in  flames,  and  should  discover  a 
person  skulking  away  in  some  dark  corner,  muffled 

owning  or  renewing  the  covenant  before  the  Church  and  publicly  profess- 
ing their  assent  to  the  doctrines  of  faith,  yet  without  furnishing  credible 
evidence  of  any  Christian  experience,  might  not  only  have  the  privilege  of 
presenting  their  children  for  baptism,  but  "  be  admitted  and  accounted 
members  of  the  Church,  and  under  the  care  and  discipline  thereof  as 
other  members,"  the  communion  excepted.  Fitness  for  this  ordinance  was 
to  be  determined  by  future  trial  and  examination. 

So  late  as  1795,  when  Dr.  Dwight  was  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  of 
Yale  College,  the  system  had  its  advocates ;  for  objections  growing  out  of 
the  "  half-way  covenant "  were  raised  against  him,  and  in  a  letter  to  the  Hon. 
Jonathan  Ingersoll,  who  favored  his  election,  a  passage  occurs  which  should 
be  quoted  in  this  place  for  the  history  it  contains. 

"  The  admission  of  children  to  baptism  on  what  is  commonly  called  the 
half-way  plan,  has  never  appeared  to  me  a  sufficient  reason  to  refuse  com- 
muning with  a  church  ;  nor,  indeed,  do  I  consider  it  as  having  anything  to 
do  with  the  subject  of  communing.  I  have  repeatedly  administered  the 
Lord's  Supper  to  the  Church  at  Stamford,  in  which  that  practice  has  always 
existed.     You  will  make  the  necessary  conclusion. 

"  It  appears  to  me  poorly  worth  the  while  for  any  man  to  employ  himself 
in  circulating  such  reports  with  reference  to  the  appointment  proposed  ;  and 
(shall  I  say)  almost  equally  so  for  my  friends  to  employ  themselves  in  obvi- 
ating them  when  spread.  I  thank  my  friends,  however,  and  heartily  ;  and 
you,  in  particular,  for  this  instance  of  your  good  will. 

"  Rut  I  do  not  court  the  appointment.  Let  those  who  do,  take  it.  I  am 
already  happily  settled,  and  in  a  station  little  exposed  to  envy  or  obloquy. 
To  build  up  a  ruined  college  is  a  difficult  task.  It  is  a  pity  the  man  who 
wishes  for  it  should  not  be  gratified.  I  am  not  that  man."  —  MS.  Letter, 
June  24,  1795. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  213 

up  in  a  clumsy  disguise,  with  a  torch  in  his  hand,  and 
a  dagger  concealed  under  his  jacket,  and  withal  refus- 
ing to  disclose  his  name,  —  I  should  certainly  be  justi- 
fied in  considering  him  (whatever  might  be  his  pro- 
fessions) as  a  thief  and  incendiary  ;  as  an  assassin  and 
plunderer ;  and,  as  such,  should  think  it  my  duty  to 
hand  him  over  to  public  justice.  I  leave  it  to  a  can- 
did public,  and,  indeed,  to  the  ingenious  author  him- 
self, to  determine  which  of  these  similitudes  best  suits 
his  case.  Let  justice  be  done  and  I  shall  be  con- 
tent." 

The  "  Sober  Appeal,"  like  its  predecessor,  had  a 
wide  circulation,  and  produced  not  a  little  sensation  in 
the  community  where  it  was  published.  While  the 
original  assailant  lay  concealed,  two  pamphlets  ap- 
peared, addressed  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Croswell,  and  evi- 
dently designed  to  provoke  personal  controversy. 
The  authorship  of  one  of  these  was  "  imputed  at  the 
time  to  an  ambitious  shoemaker,  who  laid  claim  to 
extraordinary  piety,  and  who,  subsequently,  in  a  great 
revival  season,  gained  considerable  celebrity  as  a  lay- 
preacher.  He  unfortunately  lived  long  enough,  as  his 
brethren  asserted,  to  fall  from  grace."  1 

The  other  was  from  the  pen  of  an  officer  of  Yale 
College  (Prof.  Goodrich),  and  was  in  the  form  of  a 
letter  which  began  thus  :  — 

"  Rev.  Sir  :  As  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
and  a  citizen  of  this  town,  I  have  witnessed  with  deep 
concern  the  asperity  of  feeling  created  of  late  by  a 
pamphlet  signed  '  A  Consistent  Churchman.'  From 
the  first  I  have  regretted  its  publication.  The  irony 
is  in  some  instances  unwarrantably  severe  ;  and  how- 

l  Annals  of  Trinity  Parish,  MS. 


214  HISTORY   OF   THE    EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

ever  legitimate  its  deductions  may  be,  the  citizens  of 
this  town  will,  I  fear,  consider  even  the  most  decisive 
proofs  of  rashness  and  weakness  in  the  reasonings  of 
Dr.  Hobart  and  Mr.  Rayner  as  a  poor  compensation 
for  the  pain  inflicted  on  a  large  and  respectable  class 
of  the  community.  Mingled  as  we  are  by  our  inter- 
ests and  our  relations  in  social  life,  it  is  deeply  to  be 
lamented  that  jealousy  and  discord  should  be  kindled 
up  between  different  denominations  of  Christians." 

This  was  a  soothing  and  courteous  introduction. 
But  in  the  heat  of  his  zeal  to  defend  the  pastor  of  the 
First  Ecclesiastical  Society,  in  New  Haven  (Rev.  N. 
W.  Taylor),  and  to  deny  that  he  was  the  author  of 
the  pamphlet  in  question  or  had  any  "  share  in  its 
composition,"  personalities  and  syllogisms  and  special 
pleadings  were  resorted  to,  which  ill  became  so  accom- 
plished a  mind  and  so  graceful  a  pen. 

No  rejoinder  was  made  by  the  author  of  the  "  Sober 
Appeal,"  and  the  controversy  ended,  but  the  effects  of 
it  did  not  readily  pass  away.  Its  natural  tendency 
was  to  provoke  further  inquiry ;  and  books,  setting 
forth  the  claims  of  Episcopacy,  were  eagerly  sought 
after  and  read ;  so  that  prominent  instances  of  subse- 
quent change  of  opinion  and  of  conformity  to  the 
Church  were  easily  traced  back  to  circumstances  con- 
nected with  this  incident.  The  case  of  Hector  Hum- 
phreys,1 the  son  of  Congregational  parents,  and  early 
imbued  with  all  the  sectarian  prejudices,  so  prevalent 

1  He  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1818,  with  the  highest  distinction,  and 
had  but  just  entered  on  his  theological  studies  when  these  pamphlets  made 
their  appearance  and  fell  into  his  hands.  They  seem  to  have  awakened  in 
him  an  apprehension  that  if  men  of  learning  and  piety,  whom  he  had 
always  been  taught  to  hold  in  the  greatest  veneration,  could  resort  to  such 
"  base  expedients  to  build  up  their  cause,  there  must  be  something  radically 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  215 

at  that  day,  throughout  New  England,  may  be  se- 
lected as  a  type  or  representation  of  those  brought 
under  the  indirectly  converting  influences  of  "  A  Con- 
sistent Churchman." 

defective  in  their  system.  Be  this  as  it  may,  he  could  no  longer  conscien- 
tiously pursue  his  theological  studies  under  a  system  so  apparently  marked 
with  deformity  ;  nor  did  he  at  that  time  even  dream  that  he  could  ever 
bring  his  mind  into  conformity  with  the  conflicting  system  of  the  Church. 
He  began  therefore,  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  study  of  the  law.  But  in 
the  meantime  he  made  an  earnest  and  thorough  investigation  of  the  whole 
subject  in  dispute  between  the  Church  and  the  sects.  And  the  result  of 
this  investigation  was  precisely  what  might  have  been  expected.  He  was 
not  long  in  coming  to  a  full  conviction  of  the  soundness  of  the  claims  of  Epis- 
copacy, and  this  conviction  was  followed  up  by  his  embracing,  openly  and 
unreservedly,  the  doctrines  and  worship  of  the  Church."  —  Annuls  of 
Trinity  Parish,  MS. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Humphreys  died  on  the  25th  of  January,  1857,  having  been 
President  of  St.  John's  College,  Annapolis,  Maryland,  for  twenty-five  years. 
He  preserved  to  the  last  the  "  Serious  Call"  and  "  Sober  Appeal,"  which 
were  the  instruments  of  his  conversion  to  Episcopacy,  and  used  to  say 
that  there  were  no  volumes  in  his  library  which  he  valued  more  highly. 


216  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

SPECIAL  CONVENTION";  CONSECRATION  OF  DR.  BROWNELL;  GEN- 
ERAL THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY;  AND  REVIVAL  OF  THE  CHURCH- 
man's magazine. 

a.  d.  1819-1821. 

The  Standing  Committee,  in  compliance  with  a 
resolution  of  the  last  Annual  Convention,  summoned 
the  presbyters,  deacons,  and  lay  deputies  from  the 
several  parishes  to  meet  in  Trinity  Church,  New 
Haven,  on  the  26th  of  October,  for  the  transaction  of 
ordinary  business ;  and  "  on  the  following  day  to 
receive  and  recognize  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  who 
was  then  to  be  consecrated."  Forty-two  clergymen, 
including  eight  from  other  dioceses,  and  forty  lay 
delegates  were  present,  together  with  a  large  number 
of  churchmen,  drawn  to  New  Haven  by  the  interest  of 
the  occasion. 

The  first  day  was  chiefly  occupied  with  the  affairs  of 
the  Episcopal  Academy.  A  special  committee,  ap- 
pointed at  the  previous  Annual  Convention  to  investi- 
gate the  state  of  the  funds,  and  all  the  facts  connected 
with  the  interest  and  prosperity  of  the  institution, 
made  their  report,  accompanied  by  a  fuller  statement 
from  the  Principal,  concerning  the  "  course  of  studies." 
He  gave  sixty  as  the  average  number  of  students  in 
each  term,  during  the  last  thirteen  years,  and  said  : 
"  Of  those  educated  at  the  Academy  since  its  institu- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  217 

tion,  twenty-eight  have  taken  Holy  Orders,  three  are 
now  candidates,  and  abont  ninety  have  been  qualified 
to  enter  the  various  colleges.  The  number  of  those 
who  have  been  qualified  for  the  professions  of  law  and 
medicine  is  considerable,  but  cannot  be  correctly 
ascertained." 

The  Convention  met  on  the  second  day  of  the  ses- 
sion in  the  old  Court-house,  and  after  the  transaction 
of  some  routine  business,  and  the  election  of  dele- 
gates to  represent  •  the  Diocese  in  the  next  General 
Convention,  an  adjournment  took  place  to  attend  the 
consecration.  The  presbyters,  deacons,  and  lay  dele- 
gates, with  the  visiting  clergymen,  then  formed  a  pro- 
cession from  the  house  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Inger- 
soil  to  Trinity  Church,  accompanied  by  the  Bishop 
elect  and  Bishops  White,  Hobart,  and  Griswold.  The 
clergy,  in  those  days,  were  accustomed  to  appear  in 
the  black  gown  on  such  occasions.  Morning  Prayer 
was  read  by  the  Rev.  Reuben  Ives,  and  Bishop 
White,  who  acted  as  the  consecrator,  preached  the 
sermon.  Towards  the  conclusion  of  it,  he  addressed 
himself  particularly  to  his  reverend  brethren  of  the 
Diocese,  and  referred  to  his  long  intercourse  with 
those  who  had  filled  the  Episcopate  among  them. 

"With  your  first  Bishop,  he  [the  preacher]  was  con- 
nected in  preparing  and  establishing  the  Book  of  Com- 
mon Prayer.  The  Bishops  of  our  Church  were  then 
three  in  number,  and  one  of  them,  owing  to  indisposi- 
tion, was  absent  from  our  counsels ;  so  that  the  busi- 
ness was  gone  over  in  familiar  conversation  between 
your  Bishop  and  him  who  now  addresses  you ;  who 
has  ever  since  retained  a  pleasing  recollection  of  the 
interviews  of  that  period,  and  of  the  good  sense  and 


218  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  Christian  temper  of  the  person  with  whom  he 
was  associated. 

"  After  his  decease,  it  was  in  this  city,  about  twenty- 
two  years  ago,  when  the  present  speaker  was  the 
principal  agent  in  the  consecrating  of  a  successor. 
Many  have  been  the  subsequent  occasions,  when 
we  took  sweet  counsel  together,  and  walked  in  the 
house  of  God  as  friends.  His  memory  will  be  pre- 
cious to  his  surviving  brother,  until  he  shall  follow  to 
the  rest  that  remains  to  the  people  of  God,  when  the 
labors  of  life  shall  be  over ;  if,  through  divine  mercy, 
he  shall  attain  to  such  a  termination  of  his  pilgrim- 
age. 

"  With  your  Bishop,  who  has  sustained  a  provisional 
charge  of  the  Episcopacy  among  you,  the  intercourse 
of  your  preacher  has  been  longer  and  more  intimate, 
in  consequence  of  a  knowledge  of  him  from  his  in- 
fancy; and  while  the  sense  of  his  active  usefulness 
among  you  is  cherished  throughout  this  Diocese,  it 
is  here  associated  with  many  recollections  which  give 
a  personal  interest  to  the  issue."  1 

The  closing  duties  of  the  Convention  involved  a 
formal  relinquishment  by  Bishop  Hobart  of  his  provi- 
sional charge,  and  a  recognition  of  the  new  relation 
in  which  the  services  of  that  day  had  placed  the 
Diocese.  In  the  few  farewell  words  which  he  ad- 
dressed to  his  brethren  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  he 
bore  witness  to  their  love  and  zeal  for  the  pure  and 
primitive  doctrines  of  the  Church,  and  to  numerous 
acts  of  attention,  kindness,  and  hospitality  which  could 
never  be  forgotten. 

"  A  connection  thus  consecrated  and  endeared,"  said 

1  Sermon,  pp.  20,  21. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  219 

he,  "I  cannot  consider  as  now  dissolved,  without  emo- 
tion. But  I  should  be  selfish  indeed,  if  I  did  not 
check  the  feelings  of  regret,  by  those  of  congratula- 
tion at  the  auspicious  event  which  this  day  places 
over  you  a  Bishop,  who,  in  the  fidelity  and  the  talents 
that  have  distinguished  him  in  the  stations  which  he 
has  hitherto  filled,  has  inspired  our  sanguine  expecta- 
tions of  his  great  usefulness  in  the  important  relation 
which  he  will  now  sustain  to  you." 

The  Convention  was  not  ungrateful  to  him  for  his 
eminent  services  in  the  Diocese,  and  the  words  used 
by  the  committee  appointed  to  draft  an  address 
of  thanks,  show  well  enough  that  he  and  his  work 
would  long  be  remembered.  Speaking  of  his  sacrifice 
and  labors  in  adding  the  care  of  the  Church  in  this 
State  to  the  arduous  duties  of  his  own  Episcopate, 
they  said :  — 

"  When  we  consider  that  this  sacrifice  was  made, 
and  these  labors  undertaken,  without  any  view  to 
pecuniary  interest,  and  when  we  call  to  mind  the 
eminent  services  which  you  have  rendered ;  the  new 
impulse  which  your  visitations  have  given  to  our  zeal ; 
and  the  general  success  which  has  attended  the  exer- 
cise of  your  Episcopal  functions,  we  feel  bound  to 
offer  to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church  and  Supreme 
Disposer  of  all  things,  our  sincere  and  heartfelt  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  distinguished  blessings  which  he 
has  been  pleased  to  confer  upon  us  through  the  me- 
dium of  your  services." 

But  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bronson,  president  of  the  Standing 
Committee,  presented,  in  behalf  of  the  Convention,  a 
longer  address  to  Bishop  Brownell,  recognizing  him  as 
their  Diocesan,  and  anticipating  an  increase  of  zeal 


220  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

and  unanimity  in  promoting  the  interests  of  religion, 
and  in  drawing  men  "by  gentle  persuasives  to  be 
reconciled  to  the  Divine  Saviour  of  the  world,  and  to 
walk  in  love  and  peace  together."  Their  memories 
lingered  around  the  struggles  of  the  past,  and  they 
could  not  refrain  from  alluding  to  them  on  an  occasion 
when  their  hearts  were  filled  with  so  much  joy. 

"  Looking  back  to  the  time  when  that  venerable 
man,  Bishop  Seabury,  the  first  Protestant  Bishop  in 
America,  took  charge  of  this  Diocese,  and  reflecting  on 
what  we  this  day  have  witnessed,  we  see  abundance 
of  reason  for  thanksgiving  and  praise  to  the  Great 
Head  of  the  Church.  Under  his  prudent,  yet  ener- 
getic administration,  and  that  of  his  dignified  succes- 
sor, we  have  increased  greatly  in  numbers ;  we  have 
become  a  consolidated  and  uniform  body ;  as  far  as 
is  consistent  with  fallen  human  nature  we  are  united 
in  doctrine,  in  discipline,  and  the  service  we  render  to 
Almighty  God.  By  the  liberality  of  our  civil  rulers, 
and  the  joint  contributions  of  the  Church  at  large,  we 
are  now  able,  we  hope,  to  disencumber  the  Episcopal 
office  of  parochial  services,  that  it  may  be  wholly 
dedicated  to  its  peculiar  duties.  For  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  so  desirable  an  object,  much  has  been 
due  to  the  exertions  and  unremitting  recommenda- 
tions of  those  two  eminent  characters  in  our  Church." 

And  in  replying  to  this  part  of  the  address,  Bishop 
Brownell  said  :  "In  the  performance  of  my  duties,  it 
shall  be  my  endeavor  to  imitate  that  prudence  and 
zeal  which  characterized  the  earliest  Bishop  of  this 
Diocese  and  of  this  country,  and  to  cultivate  those 
virtues  which  distinguished  his  immediate  successor. 
These  venerable  men  have  gone  to  their  reward,  and 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  221 

we  now  enjoy  the  fruit  of  their  labors.  While  we 
cherish  their  services  and  their  worth  in  grateful 
remembrance,  we  cannot  be  unmindful  of  the  zealous 
and  disinterested  services  of  a  bishop  now  present, 
who  has,  for  two  years  past,  performed  the  Episcopal 
duties  of  this  Diocese,  under  the  XXth  Canon  of  the 
General  Convention.  Having  lived  under  his  Episco- 
pal jurisdiction  ever  since  the  Church  has  enjoyed  the 
benefit  of  his  labors  in  this  present  station,  and  having 
been  for  the  year  past  associated  with  him  in  the  inti- 
mate relation  of  assistant  in  his  parochial  labors,  I 
should  do  violence  to  my  feelings  if  I  neglected,  on  the 
present  occasion,  to  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  his 
personal  friendship,  or  to  express  my  sense  of  his  ser- 
vices in  this  Diocese,  and  to  the  Church  at  large." 

These  addresses  of  welcome  and  congratulation 
closed  the  solemnities  of  the  day,  and  all  returned  to 
their  respective  homes  with  new  hopes  and  raised  ex- 
pectations. Bishop  Brownell  removed  his  family  to 
Hartford,  and  he  was  chosen  to  the  temporary  charge 
of  Christ  Church  in  that  city,  which  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Wainwright  resigned  to  accept  the  station  of  assistant 
minister  of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  made  vacant 
by  his  own  elevation  to  the  Episcopate  of  Connecticut. 
He  began  his  official  duties  with  an  ordination  to 
the  Diaconate  at  Midclletown,  on  the  17th  of  Novem- 
ber ;  and,  a  week  afterwards,  he  consecrated  the 
new  church  in  Sharon,  built  of  brick,  and  the  church 
in  Kent.  He  also  administered  the  rite  of  con- 
firmation in  both  these  churches  the  same  week, 
in  the  former  to  forty-six  persons  and  in  the  latter  to 
thirty-five.  Between  the  date  of  his  consecration  and 
the  meeting  of  the  Annual  Convention  in  June  of  the 


222  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

next  year,  he  had  confirmed  in  all,  three  hundred  and 
fifty-two,  and  visited  twenty-three  parishes. 

His  first  tour  was  chiefly  one  of  observation,  and  in 
travelling  through  different  portions  of  the  State  and 
witnessing  the  number  of  vacant  cures,  and  the  de- 
pressed and  feeble  condition  of  churches  which  were 
only  supplied  with  occasional  ministrations,  he  could 
not  but  feel  that  the  most  pressing  wants  of  the  Dio- 
cese were  missionaries  and  missionary  work.  The 
"  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge  " 
had  already  accomplished  enough  to  entitle  it  to  con- 
fidence, and  he  therefore  publicly  urged  more  liberal 
collections  in  aid  of  its  benevolent  object  of  "  advan- 
cing the  interests  of  religion  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
Church." 

The  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  were  beginning  to 
increase  at  this  time  throughout  the  country ;  and 
Bishop  Brownell,  in  1820,  gave  the  names  of  seven 
under  his  jurisdiction,  two  of  them  only  being  gradu- 
ates of  a  college.  The  General  Convention,  which 
met  at  New  York  in  1817,  had  decided  that  it  was 
expedient  to  establish  a  general  theological  seminary 
for  the  better  education  of  these  candidates,  and  a 
committee  of  nine,  composed  equally  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  laymen,  was  intrusted  with  the  business 
of  perfecting  the  plan  and  setting  it  in  active  opera- 
tion. The  institution  was  to  be  located  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  agents  were  appointed  by  the  Con- 
vention to  visit  the  several  parts  of  the  United  States 
and  solicit  contributions  towards  its  endowment. 
When  the  scheme  was  originally  proposed  in  the 
General  Convention,  Bishop  White,  who  was  after- 
wards placed  at  the  head  of  the  committee  of  nine, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  223 

differed  from  the  majority  of  both  houses  as  to  the 
expediency  of  the  measure,  and  he  was  supported  by 
his  own  Diocese  in  suggesting  a  plan  which  would 
have  left  to  local  seminaries  the  whole  matter  of 
theological  education.  His  reasons  for  the  views  he 
entertained,  are  given  at  length,  in  his  "  Memoirs  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,"1  and  the  progress  of 
events  has  shown  some  of  them  to  be  of  more  prac- 
tical importance  than  the  majority  were  disposed  to 
think  at  the  time. 

But  while  Bishop  White,  on  principle,  was  against 
the  establishment  of  a  general  theological 'seminary, 
he  acted  earnestly  with  its  friends  after  the  question 
was  settled,  and  took  special  pains  to  overcome  the 
prejudices  of  those  "who,"  as  he  said,  "laying  due 
stress  on  the  religious  qualifications  called  for  by  the 
ministry,  and  being  laudably  desirous  of  fencing  the 
sanctity  of  its  character  in  this  respect,  entertain  the 
opinion  that  it  requires  but  a  slender  furniture  of  in- 
tellectual information." 

The  Seminary,  as  originally  organized,  did  not 
flourish  in  New  York.  Difficulties  inseparably  con- 
nected with  all  new  undertakings  surrounded  it,  and 
the  efforts  to  establish  the  institution  in  that  city  not 
proving  as  successful  as  had  been  anticipated,  the 
General  Convention,  which  met  at  Philadelphia  in 
1820,  resolved  that  it  "be  transferred  to  and  located 
within  the  city  of  New  Haven,  in  the  Diocese  of  Con- 
necticut." The  Bishops,  in  communicating  to  the 
House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  their  concurrence 
in  this  action,  deemed  it  proper  to  declare  that  they 
did  not  mean  to  interfere  with  any  plan  then  contem- 

i  Page  237  et  seq. 


224  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

plated,  or  that  might  "  hereafter  be  contemplated,  in 
any  diocese  or  dioceses,  for  the  establishment  of  theo- 
logical institutions  or  professorships." 

On  the  14th  of  July,  nearly  two  months  after  the 
adjournment  of  the  General  Convention,  Bishop  Brow- 
nell,  by  order  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  presented  to 
the  Christian  public  a  plan  for  the  organization  of  the 
Seminary,  preceded  by  an  address,  and  followed  by 
resolutions.  The  institution  was  publicly  opened  at 
New  Haven  on  the  13th  of  September,  with  an  in- 
augural discourse  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  H.  Turner,  D.  D., 
at  that  time  the  only  professor ;  and  ten  students,  to 
whom  four  others  were  soon  added,  were  present  on 
the  occasion.  Bishop  Brownell  had  tendered  his  servi- 
ces gratuitously  till  the  state  of  the  funds  would  war- 
rant the  appointment  of  another  professor,  and  in  the 
ensuing  month  he  removed  to  New  Haven,  and  aided 
Dr.  Turner  by  meeting  the  students  once  a  week,  and 
instructing  them  in  the  delivery  of  sermons  and  the 
department  of  Pastoral  Theology.  He  was  deeply  in- 
terested in  its  prosperity,  and  favored  measures  to 
endow  a  professorship  in  memory  of  the  first  Bishop 
of  Connecticut.  An  extract  from  his  address  to  the 
Annual  Convention  of  1820,  will  show  his  sense  of 
its  importance  to  the  Church  :  — 

"  Without  a  learned,  as  well  as  a  pious  ministry,  it 
is  impossible  that  her  character  can  be  maintained,  or 
her  boundaries  enlarged.  The  state  of  our  country 
now  demands  higher  theological  attainments  than  our 
candidates  have  an  opportunity  of  acquiring.  In  the 
institutions  at  Andover  and  Princeton,  examples  are 
presented  to  us  of  what  a  communion  is  capable  of 
effecting,  when  its  zeal  and  resources  are  concentrated 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  225 

on  a  common  object.  I  feel  confident  that  neither 
ability  nor  liberality  are  wanting  in  our  Church,  to 
establish  such  an  institution  as  her  exigencies  require, 
and  I  trust  there  will  not  be  wanting  either  unanim- 
ity or  zeal  to  bring  her  resources  into  the  most  effi- 
cient operation.  The  high  salaries  necessary  to  sup- 
port competent  professors  in  New  York,  and  the  ina- 
bility of  most  young  men  to  support  themselves, 
during  a  three  years'  course  of  study,  in  so  expensive 
a  city,  rendered  necessary  an  amount  of  funds  alto- 
gether beyond  the  reasonable  expectations  of  the 
friends  of  the  Seminary  ;  especially  while  there  ex- 
isted, in  various  parts  of  the  Union,  such  strong  objec- 
tions to  its  location.  Influenced  by  these  considera- 
tions, and  by  the  consideration  of  the  more  moderate 
habits  which  the  students  would  be  likely  to  form  in 
such  a  place  as  New  Haven,  as  well  as  by  various 
other  motives  of  preference,  the  vote  of  the  Conven- 
tion for  transferring  the  Seminary  to  Connecticut,  was 
almost  unanimous.  While  this  removal  appears  likely 
to  prove  highly  beneficial  to  the  Church  at  large,  it 
seems  especially  calculated  to  be  useful  to  the  Church 
in  this  Diocese,  and  throughout  New  England,  where 
so  large  a  portion  of  the  clergy  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  have  been  born  and  educated.  But  a  great 
responsibility  is  thrown  upon  this  Diocese ;  as  both 
its  clergy  and  laity  will  naturally  be  expected  to  take 
the  lead  in  the  patronage  and  support  of  the  institu- 
tion. I  trust  that  neither  will  be  found  wanting;  in 
their  duty  in  so  important  a  matter." 

The  Seminary  had  been  in  operation  scarcely  a 
year  at  New  Haven,  before  the  number  of  students 
had  risen  from  ten  to  twenty-two.     But,  in  the  mean- 

VOL.   II.  15 


226  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

time,  discussions  were  going  on,  and  conflicting  state- 
ments were  put  forth  in  other  quarters,  which  were 
calculated  to  interfere  with  its  prosperity,  and  check 
the  collection  of  funds  for  its  endowment.  Bishop 
Hobart,  in  a  pastoral  letter  to  his  Diocese,  reviewed 
the  history  of  the  General  Theological  Seminary,  and 
then  considered  the  right  of  every  diocese  to  make 
provision  for  the  education  of  students  in  divinity, 
the  expediency  of  this  provision  being  made  by  New 
York,  and  the  mode  in  which  it  should  be  effected. 
The  result  of  the  Pastoral  was  the  establishment  of 
a  "  Protestant  Episcopal  Theological  Education  So- 
ciety of  the  State,"  with  the  principal  school  located 
in  the  city  of  New  York,  and  a  branch  of  it  in  the 
village  of  Geneva,  each  under  its  respective  pro- 
fessors. 

Nor  was  this  all.  Mr.  Jacob  Sherred,  a  vestryman 
of  Trinity  Church,  New  York,  died  in  that  city, 
March,  1821,  leaving  by  his  will,  dated  some  thirteen 
months  before,  about  sixty  thousand  dollars  to  a 
theological  seminary  to  be  established  within  the 
limits  of  the  State,  under  the  direction  or  by  the 
authority  of  the  General  Convention  "  or  of  the  Con- 
vention of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
State  of  New  York."  The  bequest  was  thus  in  the 
alternative  as  it  regarded  the  two  conventions,  and 
the  question  was  raised  whether  a  seminary  to  be 
established  within  the  limits  of  the  State  by  the 
General  Convention,  would  be  entitled  to  the  legacy 
in  preference  to  a  seminary  established  by  the  Con- 
vention of  the  Diocese.  Legal  opinions  were  taken, 
and  some  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  decided 
that  the  right  to  the  legacy  under  the  conditions  of 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  227 

the  will,  was  vested  in  the  Theological  Institution  al- 
ready established  in  the  State,  and  that  it  was  not  in 
the  power  of  the  General  Convention  to  deprive  the 
existing  institution  of  the  title  thus  acquired.  But 
with  a  view  to  settle  the  difficulty,  a  special  meeting 
of  that  body  was  held  in  Philadelphia  on  the  30th 
day  of  October,  1821,  when  it  was  agreed  by  the 
parties  in  interest,  "  all  in  the  spirit  of  conciliation 
and  mutual  concession,"  that  the  Seminary  should  be 
removed  from  Connecticut,  where  it  had  been  incor- 
porated by  an  act  of  the  Legislature,  back  to  New 
York,  and  a  new  institution  organized  by  uniting  it 
with  the  local  school  of  that  Diocese.  This  merging 
of  the  two  into  one  was  the  formation  of  the  present 
General  Theological  Seminary,  which  secured  the 
legacy  of  the  benevolent  testator. 

For  several  years  the  "  Churchman's  Magazine," 
which  met  with  misfortunes  after  it  was  taken  out  of 
Connecticut,  had  ceased  to  be  published.  It  was  felt 
that  its  revival,  under  suitable  management  and  con- 
trol, would  greatly  promote  the  interests  of  the 
Church ;  and  the  Annual  Convention  of  1820  re- 
quested Bishop  Brownell  to  call  in  the  assistance  of 
such  of  the  clergy  and  laity  as  he  might  think  proper, 
to  arrange  with  some  persons  for  its  publication  in 
the  Diocese,  and  to  take  the  superintendence  of  the 
same,  "  provided,  however,  that  the  whole  risk  and 
responsibility  of  the  work  shall  devolve  on  the  pub- 
lishers, without  any  direct  or  indirect  obligation,  on 
the  part  of  the  Convention,  to  make  up  losses  or 
deficiencies."  At  this  date,  periodical  literature  of 
every  kind  was  beginning  to  be  more  liberally  en- 
couraged, and   churchmen   saw  with  what   assiduity 


228  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

other  denominations  circulated  their  magazines,  and 
propagated  their  peculiar  views  of  religious  truth. 
The  Bishop,  with  five  of  his  clergy  and  one  layman, 
acted  gratuitously  as  editors  in  issuing  the  work  for 
three  years,  but  at  the  end  of  that  period,  the  patron- 
age having  been  barely  sufficient  to  defray  the  ex- 
penses of  printing,  they  terminated  their  responsi- 
bility, and  the  publication  which  had  thus  been 
"  recalled  from  the  tomb  and  reanimated  by  its  legit- 
imate parents,"  was  again  suffered  to  fall  asleep. 
The  Convocation,  however,  which  met  at  Cheshire  on 
the  24th  of  November,  1824,  revived  it  once  more, 
and  elected  the  Rev.  Dr.  Bronson  editor,  under  whose 
auspices  it  continued  to  be  published  till  the  day  of 
his  death. 

The  Church  in  Connecticut  had  now  entered  on  a 
new  epoch,  and  her  prosperity,  like  that  of  the  Chris- 
tian denominations  about  her,  was  henceforth  to  be 
affected  by  great  changes  in  the  customs  of  society 
and  the  modes  of  administering  to  personal  comfort. 
In  the  milder  climate  of  England,  from  which  our  an- 
cestors came,  no  artificial  means  had  been  employed 
for  warming  the  sanctuary,  and  the  first  settlers  natu- 
rally brought  with  them  the  practice  of  the  mother 
country,  and  built  their  meeting-houses  here  without 
reference  to  the  rigors  of  a  northern  winter.  Gene- 
ration succeeded  to  generation,  and  still  the  churches, 
as  if  run  in  the  same  mould,  were  constructed  on  the 
principle  that  no  heating  apparatus  was  necessary  or 
to  be  tolerated.  The  worshippers  from  a  distance 
might  gather  in  their   rude   "Sabbath-day  houses,"  1 

1  These  were  small  structures,  divided  into  two  rooms  for  the  accommo- 
dation of  the  sexes,  and   erected  by   individuals,  usually  on   the  public 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  229 

during  the  intermission,  and  kindle  their  fires  and 
consume  their  refreshments,  but  in  the  great  temple 
there  was  to  be  nothing  but  the  crowded  assembly  to 
take  off  the  chill  of  an  almost  Arctic  atmosphere. 
The  little  foot-stove  was  occasionally  a  luxury  ;  but 
with  the  thermometer  at  zero,  worship  must  have 
been  a  sort  of  moral  martyrdom.  We  may  feel  a 
cold  shudder  as  we  sit  amid  the  comforts  of  these  days 
and  think  of  our  forefathers,  facing  the  wintry  blasts 
and  going  up  to  the  house  of  God,  often  perched  on 
some  bleak  hill,  and  there,  wrapped  in  furs  and 
homespun  coats,  waiting  devoutly  through  the  long 
prayers  and  sermons  of  the  minister.  For  nearly  two 
hundred  years  after  its  settlement,  the  practice  of 
warming  churches  was  unknown  in  Connecticut,  and 
when  it  began  to  be  introduced  there  were  prejudices 
to  overcome,  which  in  some  places  cost  many  a  hard 
battle.  A  few  of  the  smaller  parishes  in  the  Diocese 
provided  themselves  with  stoves  at  an  earlier  date ; 
but  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  had  not  the  means 
of  being  warmed  in  the  winter  season,  until  1822,1  and 
by  that  time  all  the  denominations  in  New  England 

ground  around  the  meeting-house  ;  the  authorities  of  the  town  granting 
them  permission. 

1  Dr.  Turner,  speaking  of  his  residence  in  New  Haven,  as  Professor  of 
the  General  Theological  Seminary,  says :  "  In  the  summer  season  I  fre- 
quently visited  some  neighboring  vacant  parish  and  officiated  ;  but  gene- 
rally I  attended  Trinity  Church,  of  which  Dr.  Harry  Croswell  was  rector. 
In  the  winter  the  building  was  excessively  cold,  as  the  practice  of  warm- 
ing places  of  worship  had  not  then  been  introduced  in  Connecticut." —  Au- 
tobiography, p.  105. 

The  vestry  of  Trinity,  in  the  autumn  of  1806,  "  allowed  liberty  to  put 
up  a  stove  in  the  church,  provided  it  was  done  without  expense  to  the  par- 
ish," a  liberty  which  seems  not  to  have  been  used,  or  if  used  in  the  old 
wooden  structure,  the  new  stone  edifice  was  occupied  for  six  years,  before 
decisive  steps  were  taken  to  warm  it  in  the  winter. 


230  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

were  gradually  adopting  the  practice.  No  house  of 
worship  was  thenceforth  erected  without  reference  to 
the  comfort  of  those  who  were  to  occupy  it.  and  a 
stove  or  a  furnace  soon  became  as  much  a  necessity 
in  the  church  as  in  the  private  dwelling. 


EN"  CONNECTICUT.  231 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MANNER    OF    PERFORMING    DIVINE    SERVICE;    SUNDAY    SCHOOLS; 
CHARGE  OF  THE  BISHOP;  AND  PROSPERITY  OF  THE  DIOCESE. 

A.  D.  1821  -  1823. 

The  prejudices  of  a  community  in  which  Puritanism 
prevailed  led  to  some  laxity  in  the  rubrical  observances 
of  the  clergy.  They  and  their  people  thoroughly  un- 
derstood all  questions  pertaining  to  the  ministry  and 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  but  in  matters  of  the  ritual 
they  were  not  so  careful  or  so  tenacious  of  uniformity. 
The  order  of  architecture,  followed  by  parishes  in  the 
construction  of  their  churches,  had  been  for  the  most 
part  a  New  England  meeting-house,  and  arched  win- 
dows were  the  principal  mark  to  distinguish  the  edi- 
fices of  Episcopalians  from  those  that  belonged  to  the 
sects.  Chancel  arrangements  were  made  without  re- 
gard to  the  convenience  of  the  clergyman  or  to  the 
proper  manner  of  conducting  divine  service,  and  fre- 
quently in  the  smaller  churches  in  rural  districts  a 
spacious  pulpit,  built  next  to  the  wall,  and  nearly  mid- 
way between  the  apex  of  the  roof  and  the  level  of 
the  main  floor,  was  used  both  for  the  prayers  and  the 
sermon.  Sometimes  lower  down  in  front  of  the  pulpit 
a  high  breast-work  was  raised  for  a  reading  desk,  and 
outside  of  this  stood  the  Lord's  Table,  which  the  priest 
never  approached  except  on  Communion  Sundays.  A 
recessed   chancel  was   not  to  be  seen,  and  where  a 


232  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

surplice  was  worn,  the  clergyman  generally  passed 
the  whole  length  of  the  church  to  reach  the  vestry- 
room  and  change  it  for  the  black  gown. 

The  gradual  advance  in  architecture  brought  with 
it  many  improvements,  but  at  the  time  when  Bishop 
Brownell  entered  upon  the  duties  of  his  office,  this 
description  would  apply,  with  a  few  exceptions,  to  all 
the  churches  in  Connecticut.  In  the  absence  of  any 
artistic  skill,  popular  opinion  governed,  and  the  same 
authority  affected  the  practices  of  the  clergy,  who 
had  then  nowhere  in  the  land  been  accustomed  to  a 
ritual  relatively  above  the  prevailing  style  of  eccle- 
siastical architecture.  At  a  Convocation  held  in 
Cheshire,  September  6,  1821,  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  take  into  consideration  "such  known  diver- 
sities of  practice  as  may  exist  among  the  clergy  of 
this  Diocese,  and  to  suggest  those  particulars  on  which 
in  their  judgment  it  is  desirable  that  there  should  be 
uniformity."  The  resolutions  growing  out  of  this  ac- 
tion, and  adopted  by  the  Convocation,  were  in  sub- 
stance as  follows :  That  the  clergy  use  the  ante- 
communion  service  every  Sunday  in  the  year,  except 
under  those  circumstances  which  necessarily  prevent, 
and  that  it  be  read  from  the  chancel  on  Communion 
Sundays ;  that  the  congregations  be  dismissed  pre- 
vious to  the  communion  service  with  a  collect  and  the 
shorter  benediction ;  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  be  omit- 
ted before  the  sermon  and  a  collect  only  used ;  and 
that  the  clergy  instruct  their  choirs  to  close  every 
psalm  and  hymn  with  the  doxology. 

The  due  performance  of  the  music  of  the  Church 
received  early  attention  in  Connecticut.  One  of  her 
clergy  —  Dr.  Smith,  formerly  Principal  of  the  Episco- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  233 

pal  Academy  at  Cheshire  —  addressed  a  petition  to 
the  General  Convention  which  met  at  New  Haven  in 
1811,  relative  to  a  volume  of  music  composed  by  him, 
entitled  "The  Churchman's  Choral  Companion  to  his 
Prayer  Book."  The  object  of  the  work  was  to  favor 
the  introduction  into  our  churches  of  "  chanting  and 
the  singing  of  anthems;1  and  though  it  was  decided 
to  be  inexpedient  to  take  any  action  thereon,  yet 
according  to  Bishop  White,2  the  book  was  well  es- 
teemed ;  and  "  it  was  not  from  any  dissatisfaction 
with  it  that  the  application  was  rejected,  but  because 
the  request  to  enjoin  the  use  of  the  chants  and  tunes 
exclusively  of  all  others  was  thought  unreasonable," 
and  to  have  granted  it  would  have  been  a  high  exer- 
cise of  power.  Still  Dr.  Smith  persevered  in  his 
efforts,  and  in  1816  published  a  smaller  work  to  aid 
the  first,  of  which  he  thus  spoke  in  the  introduction : 
"As  the  experiment  has  been  made,  and  almost  all 
our  churches  show  an  increasing  disposition  to  adopt 
this  primitive  and  once  universal  way  of  setting  forth 
the  most  worthy  praise  of  Almighty  God,  it  hath 
become  incumbent  on  the  author  to  ameliorate  his 
former  publication  by  means  of  the  present." 

Not  more  than  half  a  dozen  churches  in  the  Dio- 
cese supplied  with  organs  could  be  found  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century,  and  their  number  was  not 

1  At  the  annual  meeting  of  Trinity  Parish,  New  Haven,  Easter  Mon- 
day, 1802,  an  organist  was  appointed  with  a  fixed  salary,  and  required  to 
substitute  always  an  anthem  for  the  voluntary,  which  "  has  been  usually 
played." 

This  vote  had  no  reference  to  the  voluntaries  before  and  after  divine 
service,  but  to  a  practice  which  had  long  prevailed  of  playing  a  voluntary 
after  the  second  lesson  of  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  in  conformity 
with  an  English  custom. 

2  Memoirs,  etc.  p.  213. 


234  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

much  increased  for  twenty-five  years.  A  few  rectors, 
skilled  in  music,  took  great  pains  to  cultivate  a  taste 
for  chanting,  even  where  there  was  no  instrumental 
accompaniment,  and  soon  volunteer  choirs,  composed 
principally  of  the  young,  grew  familiar  with  the  prac- 
tice, and  congregations  learned  to  crave  something 
beside  the  metrical  psalms  and  hymns.  The  old 
choristers  were  at  first  the  greatest  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  introducing  the  chants,  and  in  some  parishes 
troubles  arose  on  this  account  which  extended  into 
many  families  and  lasted  long.  But  intelligent 
churchmen  stood  by  their  rectors,  who  simply  ad- 
hered to  the  plain  construction  of  the  rubrics,  and 
only  "  said  or  sung "  the  anthems  and  doxologies  as 
the  Prayer  Book  prescribed.  If  the  people  anywhere 
objected  to  chanting,  it  was  not  so  much  from  a  feel- 
ing that  it  was  a  Popish  innovation,  as  from  the  want 
of  a  suitable  number  of  competent  persons  to  lead  in 
it  and  render  it  really  an  offering  of  praise.  Sacred 
music  differs  from  all  other  kinds  of  music  in  that  it 
is  an  act  of  devotion.  Found  in  all  ages  and  asso- 
ciated with  all  forms  of  Christian  faith,  it  is  the  most 
subtle  and  powerful  collateral  influence  connected 
with  the  offices  of  public  worship.  Instead  of  being 
a  matter  of  mere  entertainment  or  vain  show,  it  is 
a  mysterious  and  potent  agency,  having  the  same 
silent  aim  as  religion,  and  awakening  the  heart,  con- 
centrating the  thoughts,  and  elevating  and  enchanting 
the  soul.  The  theory  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  is,  that  her  members  should  join  in  the  song 
of  praise  as  well  as  in  the  act  of  prayer ;  but  the 
churchmen  of  Connecticut,  who  fifty  years  ago  were 
unable   to   do   this,   were   no   worse   off  than   their 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  235 

descendants  of  the  present  day,  who  find  quartette 
choirs  and  operatic  performers  practically  depriving 
them  of  all  participation  in  singing  or  chanting. 

Bishop  Brown  ell,  in  his  primary  address  to  the 
Convention  in  1820,  called  attention  to  the  subject  of 
Sunday-schools,  and  urged  their  establishment  in  all 
the  parishes.  "  I  believe,"  said  he,  "  that  they  are 
already  very  generally  established  throughout  the 
Diocese;  and  much  praise  is  due  to  the  clergy,  and 
others  wTho  have  promoted  them,  as  well  as  to  those 
generous  individuals  who  have  taxed  their  charity 
with  the  labor  of  instruction.  To  withdraw  the 
young  from  profane  amusements,  or  a  thoughtless 
indolence  on  the  Lord's  day;  to  assemble  them  to- 
gether for  religious  worship ;  to  store  their  minds 
with  the  elements  of  Christian  knowledge ;  to  excite 
in  their  hearts  devout  affections,  and  to  familiarize 
them  to  the  pious  and  evangelical  services  of  our 
liturgy,  are  objects  which  may  well  call  forth  the 
charities  of  the  friends  of  religion." 

It  was  then  only  forty  years  since  the  system  of 
Sunday-schools  had  been  first  instituted,  and  they 
owe  their  origin  to  a  pious  and  philanthropic  layman 
of  Gloucester,  England  —  Robert  Raikes,  a  printer 
and  the  son  of  a  printer.  He  saw  in  the  state  of  the 
population  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  the  necessity 
of  something  more  than  the  ordinary  teachings  of  the 
parish  minister  to  check  the  progress  of  vice  in  the 
lower  classes,  and  the  deplorable  profanation  of  the 
Lord's  day.  His  benevolent  heart,  therefore,  turned 
to  some  means  of  gathering  together  and  teaching 
the  poor  and  neglected  children,  and  with  the  aid  of  a 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England  he  planned  this 


236  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 

system  and  set  it  in  operation.  It  was  originally  very 
simple.  Mr.  Raikes  had  distinguished  himself  by  va- 
rious efforts  for  the  relief  of  human  misery,  and  he 
stipulated  for  a  shilling  a  day  with  a  few  well-dis- 
posed women,  living  in  those  suburbs  of  the  city 
where  the  lowest  of  the  people  dwelt,  to  receive  as 
many  children  as  he  should  send  on  Sunday,  and  in- 
struct them  in  reading  and  the  Church  Catechism. 
The  clergyman  of  the  parish  engaged,  for  his  part,  to 
go  round  to  the  schools  in  the  afternoon  for  the  pur- 
pose of  examining  the  progress  that  was  made,  and 
enforcing  "  order  and  decorum  among  such  a  set  of 
little  heathens."  It  was  really  an  effort  at  civilization, 
and  the  originator  of  it  often  derived  great  pleasure 
from  discovering  genius  and  innate  good  dispositions 
among  the  children,  which  he  called  "  botanizing  in 
human  nature." 

The  system  thus  conceived  and  operated  com- 
mended itself  to  the  minds  and  consciences  of  all, 
and  soon  Christians  every  where  welcomed  it  with 
zealous  approbation  ;  and  wondering  that  it  should 
never  have  been  devised  before,  they  "  seemed  de- 
termined to  repair,  as  much  as  possible,  the  mischief 
of  past  neglect,  by  applying  with  the  utmost  dili- 
gence the  benefits  of  this  new  discovery  in  the  world 
of  morals  and  religion."  The  wealthy  bestowed  on  it 
their  contributions,  noblemen  lent  their  influence  to 
its  extension,  and  the  labors  and  prayers  of  all,  as 
well  as  the  energies  of  the  press,  were  freely  enlisted 
in  its  behalf,  so  that  within  two  years  from  its  origin, 
it  was  computed  that  250.000  children  in  our  mother 
country  were  every  Sunday  receiving  instruction  in 
this  way. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  237 

It  has  been  seen  that  the  first  Sunday-school  teach- 
ers were  hired,  and  this  practice  was  continued  until 
about  the  beginning  of  the  century,  when  voluntary 
gratuitous  instruction  became  general  in  Great  Britain, 
and  the  pecuniary  expense  otherwise  entailed  upon 
the  system  ceased  to  be  an  objection.  The  first  Sun- 
day-school in  the  United  States  was  commenced  in 
Philadelphia  by  the  "First  Day  or  Sunday-school  Soci- 
ety." in  1791,  and  the  name  of  Bishop  White  appears 
among  the  founders  of  the  institution.  The  move- 
ment of  Connecticut  towards  its  adoption  was  not 
prior  to  that  of  other  Dioceses.  Her  system  of  com- 
mon schools,  from  which  religious  instruction  had  not 
been  entirely  discarded  at  so  early  a  date,  rendered  it 
difficult  to  find  any  of  mature  age  who  were  unable 
to  read  and  write.  Knowledge  was  brought  within 
reach  of  the  masses,  and  ignorance  — the  parent  of 
vice — fled  before  the  demands  of  a  virtuous  and  intel- 
ligent people.  As  far  as  the  Sunday-schools,  upon 
their  first  establishment  in  Connecticut,  were  confined 
to  instruction  in  the  rudiments  of  secular  knowledge 
and  the  fundamentals  of  religion,  they  were  under- 
taken by  benevolent  Christians  without  regard  to  de- 
nominational differences.  But  the  times  were  charged 
with  excitement,  and  Episcopalians,  who  had  nothing 
to  gain  but  much  to  lose  by  such  a  union,  chose  to 
organize  their  own  Sunday-schools,  and  they  made 
them  at  once  a  prominent  feature  in  parochial  work, 
especially  during  the  summer  months. 

It  has  not  been  ascertained  precisely  how  early  they 
came  in,  but  they  had  been  organized  in  several  par- 
ishes while  the  Diocese  was  under  the  provisional 
jurisdiction  of  Bishop  Hobart.    Bishop  Brownell  spoke 


238  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

of  them  in  his  address  to  the  Annual  Convention  of 
1822,  as  established  in  nearly  all  the  parishes,  with 
the  most  salutary  results,  both  to  the  children  and 
their  instructors.  "The  munificent  provision  of  the 
State,"  said  he,  "for  the  support  of  common  schools, 
and  the  disposition  which  prevails  among  all  classes 
of  the  community  to  derive  the  greatest  benefit  from 
them,  have  caused  elementary  education  to  become 
so  universal  among  our  youth,  that  we  have  no  occa- 
sion to  devote  any  portion  of  the  Lord's  day  to  this 
species  of  instruction.  This  is  a  peculiar  advantage 
which  we  enjoy,  and  which  enables  us  to  apply  our 
Sunday-schools  directly  to  their  legitimate  object  — 
religious  instruction.  It  is  a  most  gratifying  circum- 
stance, that  there  has  yet  been  no  want  of  pious  and 
well-disposed  persons  ready  to  assist  their  clergymen 
in  this  charitable  labor."  Some  difficulties  were  expe- 
rienced at  first  in  procuring  proper  books,  and  much 
diversity  prevailed  in  the  modes  of  instruction ;  and 
hence  the  Convention  of  that  year,  through  a  com- 
mittee, recommended  that  the  children  be  instructed 
in  the  Church  Catechism  and  Explanation ;  and  also 
that  they  be  required  to  commit  to  memory  passages 
of  Scripture  and  "  exercised  in  questions  in  the  Bible, 
and  on  the  Rubrics  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer." 
In  1826  the  "General  Protestant  Episcopal  Sunday- 
school  Union "  was  established  during  the  session  of 
the  General  Convention  at  Philadelphia  —  a  scheme 
which  the  clergy  of  Connecticut  in  Convocation  had 
already  formally  approved,  and  requested  the  dele- 
gates from  the  Diocese  to  aid  in  accomplishing.  Its 
main  object  was  to  remedy  existing  evils  and  to  pro- 
vide an  adequate  supply  of  the  several  grades  of  books 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  239 

needed  in  Sunday-schools,  and  which  would  impart  no 
other  religious  views  than  such  as  are  consistent  with 
"  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  "  —  exhibiting  that  truth 
in  the  fullness  and  integrity  in  which  it  is  revealed  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures,  and  faithfully  conveyed  in  the 
standards  of  our  Church. 

The  Annual  Convention  for  1821  was  held  at  Water- 
bury,  when  thirty-two  clergymen  and  thirty-eight 
lay  delegates  were  present  —  a  number  somewhat 
larger  than  had  assembled  the  previous  year  at  Hart- 
ford. Bishop  Brownell  gave  his  primary  charge  to 
the  clergy,  and  the  leading  consideration  to  which  he 
called  their  attention  was  to  "  keep  constantly  in  view 
the  great  object  and  end  of  their  ministerial  profes- 
sion," namely,  "  to  induce  sinful  men  to  embrace 
the  way  of  salvation  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  build  up 
the  Church  in  the  most  holy  faith."  After  dwelling 
on  piety  and  learning  as  qualifications  requisite  to  the 
due  discharge  of  the  sacred  office,  he  directed  their 
thoughts  to  the  manner  in  which  its  duties  may  be 
most  successfully  performed.  He  spoke  of  private 
monitions  and  parochial  visits  in  the  scenes  of  sick- 
ness, adversity,  and  affliction,  as  among  their  most  use- 
ful labors,  and  then  passed  to  their  public  ministra- 
tions —  to  "  the  service  of  the  desk  and  the  altar,  and 
the  service  of  the  pulpit."  In  defending  the  true 
faith  against  "  all  erroneous  and  strange  doctrines 
contrary  to  God's  word,"  and  in  proclaiming  the  dis- 
tinctive principles  of  the  Church,  a  delicate  duty  was 
involved,  requiring  as  much  prudence  as  Christian 
charity.  Under  this  head  he  put  forth  counsels  which 
are  applicable  to  all  times  and  too  good  not  to  be 
quoted  here. 


240  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

"In  this  spirit,  my  brethren,  and  on  these  princi- 
ples, it  will  be  your  duty  on  all  proper  occasions  to 
hold  up  to  view  the  distinctive  principles  of  your  Church. 
This  is  a  privilege  freely  exercised  by  other  denomina- 
tions of  Christians,  and  one  which  we  freely  concede 
to  them.  It  is  not  unreasonable,  then,  that  we  require 
the  like  privilege  in  return.  Indeed,  it  is  only  by  a 
free  declaration  of  the  truth,  and  a  zealous  defence 
of  it,  that  it  can  ever  be  propagated,  or  even  main- 
tained. 

"  It  is  by  these  means  that  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
Connecticut  has  acquired  her  growth.  A  century  ago 
she  numbered  not  more  than  eighty  families  within 
the  State.  She  can  now  count  as  many  regularly 
organized  congregations.  And  during  this  time  she 
has  had  almost  every  thing  to  retard  her  prosperity, 
and  no  single  circumstance  to  advance  it,  except  the 
excellency  of  her  principles,  and  the  frank  avowal  and 
firm  support  of  them.  Were  she  to  cease  from  this 
course,  situated  as  she  is  in  the  midst  of  a  respectable 
and  much  larger  denomination  of  Christians,  she  would 
soon  cease  to  exist.  Her  clergy,  as  well  as  the  laity, 
would  soon  become  ignorant  of  her  peculiar  doctrines, 
and  then  indifferent  to  her  distinctive  character.  Un- 
der these  circumstances,  there  would  be  nothing  to 
counteract  that  universal  law  of  nature  by  which 
smaller  bodies  gravitate  towards  larger  ones,  and  the 
Church  would  soon  be  merged  in  those  religious  com- 
munities with  which  she  is  surrounded. 

"Loving  your  Church,  then,  my  brethren,  and  at- 
tached to  her  distinctive  principles  from  a  conscien- 
tious conviction  of  their  excellency  and  importance, 
you  will  not  think  you  have  faithfully  discharged  your 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  241 

duties  to  your  flocks,  unless  they  are  fully  instructed 
in  them.  Nor  will  you  be  deterred  by  any  false  deli- 
cacy from  publicly  avowing  and  firmly  defending  these 
distinctive  principles,  whenever  it  may  be  done  with 
propriety  and  advantage.  In  pursuing  this  course, 
you  will  not  be  led  of  necessity  to  make  any  direct 
or  gross  attack  upon  the  sentiments  of  other  religious 
denominations  :  the  simple  display  of  truth  is  gen- 
erally the  best  antidote  to  error.  Much  less  will  you 
feel  yourselves  called  upon  to  impugn  the  motives  — 
the  sincerity  or  the  piety  —  of  those  who  may  con- 
scientiously differ  from  you.  By  the  manifestation 
of  a  Christian  temper,  and  the  exercise  of  a  judicious 
moderation,  you  will  evince  to  the  world  that  you  are 
not  merely  contending  for  the  dogmas  of  a  sect,  but 
for  essential  doctrines  of  that  faith  once  delivered  to 
the  saints. 

"  Liberality  of  sentiment  upon  religious  subjects  is 
amiable  and  commendable"  in  the  sight  of  all  men, 
and  is,  moreover,  a  high  Christian  duty.  But  there  is 
an  erroneous  principle  which  usurps  its  name,  and 
which  would  confound  all  distinction  between  truth 
and  error.  This  spurious  liberality  pretends  to  con- 
sider as  of  no  importance  all  those  varieties  of  opinion 
which  prevail  among  different  religious  denominations, 
and  seems  to  demand  that  we  should  regard  with 
equal  estimation  the  widely  differing  creeds  of  all 
who  profess  the  Christian  name.  Such  a  latitudina- 
rian  principle,  if  carried  to  its  full  extent,  would  go 
to  the  utter  destruction  of  Christianity  itself.  There 
is  one  denomination  which  rejects  its  external  ordi- 
nances, and  another  which  obliterates  its  most  dis- 
tinctive features  —  the  divinity  and  atonement  of  the 

VOL.  II.  16 


242  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Saviour.  Deprive  Christianity  of  these  characteristics, 
and  there  is  but  little  to  distinguish  it  from  modern 
Deism."1 

He  contended  that  an  enlightened  charity  would 
not  exhaust  itself  in  futile  attempts  to  "  abolish  secta- 
rian distinctions,"  but  would  rather  direct  its  efforts  to 
the  promotion  of  kindly  feelings  and  a  mutual  tolera- 
tion of  opinions  among  those  who  profess  a  common 
Christianity.  "  With  regard,  then,"  said  he,  a  little 
further  on  in  this  charge,  "  to  our  union  with  other 
religious  denominations,  we  may  cordially  associate 
and  cooperate  with  them  in  all  secular  affairs ;  in  all 
humane,  literary,  and  charitable  objects ;  nor  should 
differences  of  faith  create  any  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  social  intercourse  and  good  neighborhood ;  but  in 
objects  purely  religions  we  can  form  no  union  with  other 
denominations  with  which  we  are  surrounded,  without 
either  abandoning  important  principles,  or  incurring, 
if  we  adhere  to  them,  the  imputation  of  sectarian 
bigotry.  While,  therefore,  we  concede  to  others  the 
same  right,  let  us  jDursue  our  religious  and  ecclesias- 
tical affairs  according  to  the  regulations  and  institu- 
tions of  our  Church,  without  any  mistaken  attempts 
to  compromise  in  matters  of  conscience.  Nor  let  us 
think  that  we  are  violating  any  principle  of  Christian 
charity,  when  we  freely  avow  and  firmly  maintain  our 
distinctive  principles." 

It  was  in  such  a  spirit  that  the  newly  consecrated 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese  entered  upon  his  official  duties, 
and  directed  the  labors  of  his  clergy.  Under  its  influ- 
ence the  Church  moved  on  "in  quietness  and  confi- 
dence," and  the  signs  of  her  prosperity  were  every- 

1  Charge,  pp.  16-18. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  243 

where  visible.  During  the  year  which  ended  with 
the  Convention  of  1821,  the  rite  of  Confirmation  had 
been  administered  in  thirty-four  parishes,  to  eight  hun- 
dred and  thirty-six  persons :  the  candidates  for  Holy 
Orders  had  been  doubled,  one  had  been  advanced 
to  the  Priesthood,  and  two  had  been  admitted  to  the 
Diaconate.  Edifices  begun  several  years  before  were 
completed,  and  of  these  St.  Paul's  Church,  Ripton,  and 
St.  John's,  Washington,  had  been  duly  consecrated  to 
the  service  of  Almighty  God. 

The  names  of  the  venerable  Dr.  Mansfield  and  Dr. 
William  Smith  disappear  from  the  list  of  the  clergy 
at  this  time  —  the  first  of  whom  died  a  few  days  pre- 
ceding Easter,  1820,  and  the  other  twelve  months 
later,  leaving  behind  them  in  the  Diocese  only  one 
clergyman,  Rev.  John  Tyler,  who  received  his  Orders 
in  the  Church  of  England.  Mr.  Tyler  soon  followed 
his  aged  associates,  and  died  at  Norwich  on  the  20th 
of  January,  1823,  having  been  fifty-four  years  Rector 
of  Christ  Church  in  that  city,  —  and  Dr.  Mansfield, 
from  the  date  of  his  ordination  to  the  time  of  his 
decease,  a  period  of  nearly  seventy-two  years,  had 
continued  in  the  rectorship  of  St.  James's  Church, 
Derby. 

At  the  Convention  of  1821  a  committee,  appointed 
the  previous  year  to  revise  the  Constitution  and  Can- 
ons of  the  Church  in  the  Diocese,  reported  a  new 
Constitution,  which,  after  sundry  amendments,  was 
adopted  and  ordered  to  be  printed,  and  submitted  to 
the  several  parishes  for  their  approval.  The  new 
Constitution  contained  an  article  which  gave  to  the 
Convention  the  power  of  future  amendment  without 
submitting  propositions  to  the  parishes,  but  so  fixed 


244  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

were  the  churchmen  of  that  period  in  their  views,  or 
so  indifferent  to  the  advantages  of  any  change,  that 
four  years  elapsed  before  the  requisite  returns  were 
received  so  as  to  make  this  revised  Constitution  the 
law  of  the  Diocese. 

Bishop  Brownell  found  time,  amid  his  other  engage- 
ments, to  compile  his  valuable  "  Commentary  on  the 
Book  of  Common  Prayer,"  which  was  published  early 
in  1823,  and  was  the  first  work  of  the  kind  prepared 
in  this  country.  He  had  then  made  thorough  visita- 
tions of  the  Diocese  and  become  acquainted  with  the 
zeal  of  the  clergy,  and  the  spirit  and  wants  of  the 
laity.  "Everywhere,"  said  he  in  his  address  to  the 
Convention  of  1821,  "I  have  been  received  with  a 
kindness  and  an  interest  highly  gratifying  to  my 
feelings.  Concerning  the  general  prosperity  of  the 
Church,  it  may  be  difficult  to  decide  with  confidence ; 
but  from  the  best  observations  and  inquiries  which  I 
have  been  able  to  make,  her  friends  have  no  reason 
to  despond.  She  seems  to  be  gradually  enlarging  her 
borders  and  strengthening  her  stakes,  while  at  the 
same  time  there  appears  to  be  an  increasing  degree 
of  piety  and  zeal  among  her  members.  Her  clergy 
are  everywhere  zealous  and  faithful.  I  make  this 
observation  with  the  more  satisfaction,  as  I  have  form- 
erly heard  them  charged  from  abroad  with  coldness 
and  indifference.  Nothing  but  ignorance,  or  gross 
prejudice,  could  have  suggested  the  imputation.  It  is 
my  full  conviction  that  if  there  exists,  in  any  part  of 
our  country,  a  body  of  clergy  who  by  their  labors  and 
privations,  their  industry  and  fidelity,  approach  to  the 
model  of  the  primitive  ages  of  the  Church,  such  men 
are  to  be  found  among  the  Episcopal  clergy  of  Con- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  245 

necticut.  To  insure  the  continued  prosperity  and 
advancement  of  the  Church,  nothing  is  wanting,  with 
the  blessing  of  Heaven,  but  the  continued  zeal  and 
perseverance  of  her  friends.  There  is  nothing  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  times  which  can  warrant  a  relax- 
ation of  either.  On  the  contrary,  the  excitement  with 
regard  to  religion,  which  seems  to  prevail  through  the 
greater  part  of  the  State,  furnishes  ground  to  the 
friends  of  the  Church  for  the  exercise  of  a  more  espe- 
cial degree  of  vigilance.  From  the  clergy,  in  a  par- 
ticular manner,  it  calls  for  increased  watchfulness  and 
zeal.  The  present  is  certainly  a  period  when  people 
in  general  are  more  disposed  than  usual  to  attend  to 
the  concerns  of  religion.  Not  that  we  have  reason  to 
believe  there  is  any  special  effusion  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  in  any  particular  region,  but  the  excitement 
which  has  been  raised  in  the  community,  has  led  peo- 
ple to  give  more  heed  to  those  ordinary  influences  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  those  ordinary  means  of  grace 
which  are  at  all  times  dispensed  in  such  measure  as  to 
enable  all  who  will  cooperate  with  them,  to  work  out 
their  salvation  through  the  merits  of  the  Redeemer. 
But  if  the  people  are  disposed  to  hear,  and  to  inquire, 
whatever  may  be  the  cause,  it  is  the  especial  duty  of 
the  clergy  to  warn  and  to  instruct.  More  especially 
is  this  their  duty,  at  the  present  period,  that  they  may 
guard  their  flocks  from  the  delusions  and  errors  of 
ignorant  teachers,  and  lead  the  inquiring  mind  to 
just  and  rational  views  of  that  way  of  salvation 
revealed  in  the  Gospel." 


246  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER   XVTII. 

CHARTER  OF  A   COLLEGE;    OPPOSITION   TO   ITS    ESTABLISHMENT; 
CHANGES  IN  THE  CLERGY;  AND  DEATH  OF  DR.  BRONSON. 

A.  D.   1823-1826. 

The  project  to  establish  a  college  in  Connecticut, 
which  should  be  under  the  auspices  of  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church,  was  now  revived,  after  having  slept 
for  seven  years.  The  return  of  the  General  Theologi- 
cal Seminary  to  New  York,  was  the  signal  for  fresh 
efforts  to  obtain  a  charter,  and  eighteen  clergymen, 
specially  convoked,  met  at  the  house  of  Bishop 
Brownell  in  New  Haven  a  week  before  Christmas, 
1822,  to  take  the  preliminary  steps.  The  Bishop, 
with  two  of  the  brethren  and  three  laymen,  were 
appointed  to  draw  up  a  memorial  to  be  circulated  in 
the  Diocese  for  signatures,  —  praying  "  the  General 
Assembly  to  grant  an  act  of  incorporation  for  a  col- 
lege, with  power  to  confer  the  usual  literary  honors, 
to  be  placed  in  either  of  the  cities  of  Hartford,  Mid- 
dletown,  or  New  Haven,  according  to  the  discretion  of 
the  Trustees."  The  act  of  incorporation  was  to  take 
effect  whenever  funds  should  be  raised  for  an  endow- 
ment amounting  to  thirty  thousand  dollars,  and  not 
before.  And  the  committee,  in  preparing  the  memo- 
rial, asked  leave  to  appropriate  towards  the  endow- 
ment such  portion  of  the  funds  of  the  Episcopal 
Academy  at  Cheshire,  or  the  income  thereof,  as  might 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  247 

be  thought  expedient,  "provided  the  consent  of  the 
Trustees  of  said  Academy  be  first  obtained,  and  that 
no  portion  of  the  funds  contributed  by  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Cheshire  be  removed."  This  part  of  the 
petition  was  denied,  or  withdrawn,  but  the  recent 
political  changes  in  the  State,  and  the  breaking  down 
of  the  old  dynasty,  had  prepared  the  way  for  hearing 
the  memorialists,  when  they  said :  — 

"We  are  members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church, —  a  denomination  of  Christians  considerable 
for  their  numbers  and  resources  in  our  country, — and 
we  beg  leave  to  represent,  that,  while  all  other  relig- 
ious denominations  in  the  Union  have  their  universi- 
ties and  colleges  under  their  influence  and  direction, 
there  is  not  a  single  institution  of  this  kind  under 
the  special  patronage  and  guardianship  of  Episco- 
palians. It  cannot  be  doubted  but  that  such  an  insti- 
tution will  be  established  in  some  part  of  our  country, 
at  no  distant  period;  and  we  are  desirous  that  the 
State  of  Connecticut  shall  have  the  benefit  of  its 
location. 

"  As  Episcopalians,  we  do  not  ask  for  any  exclusive 
privileges,  but  we  desire  to  be  placed  on  the  same 
footing  with  other  denominations  of  Christians." 

That  nothing  might  be  done  to  peril  their  petition, 
the  memorialists  allowed  a  name,  dear  in  the  military 
and  civil  history  of  the  land  (Washington),  to  be 
inserted  in  the  proposed  act  of  incorporation,  rather 
than  the  name  of  the  first  Bishop  of  the  Diocese. 
The  charter  was  granted  on  the  16th  of  May,  1823, 
and  the  event  was  welcomed  in  Hartford,  where  the 
General  Assembly  was  holding  its  session,  with  demon- 
strations of  great  rejoicing.     Cannons  were  fired  and 


248  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

bonfires  lighted.  Though  given  upon  the  prayer  of 
Episcopalians,  and  contemplating  their  management, 
the  charter,  as  the  petitioners  wished,  required  that 
the  college  should  be  conducted  on  the  broad  princi- 
ples of  religious  liberality,  and  about  one-third  of  the 
original  corporators  were  taken  from  outside  of  the 
Church.  It  contained  a  provision,  prohibiting  the 
Trustees  from  passing  any  ordinance  or  by-law  that 
should  make  the  religious  tenets  of  any  officer  or 
student  in  the  college  a  test  or  qualification  of  em- 
ployment or  admission.  And  here  it  may  be  observed 
that,  up  to  the  very  day  before  the  petition  for  this 
charter  was  presented  to  the  General  Assembly,  the 
statute  of  Yale  College,  in  reference  to  tests,  —  modi- 
fied upon  the  accession  of  Dr.  Stiles  to  the  Presidency 
from  consent  to  the  Westminster  Catechism  and  Con- 
fession of  Faith  into  an  assent  to  the  Saybrook  Plat- 
form, —  was  still  in  force.  That  day,  at  a  special 
meeting  of  the  corporation,  held  in  the  city  of  Hart- 
ford, the  obnoxious  test-law  was  repealed.  There 
were  those  who  thought  the  time  wras  thus  critically 
chosen  for  its  repeal,  that  an  influence  might  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  minds  of  the  liberal  Legis- 
lature, touching  the  memorial  for  a  second  college. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  no  sooner  was  the  charter 
granted,  than  its  friends,  who  had  been  so  long  con- 
tending with  the  evils  of  popular  prejudice,  were  now 
compelled  to  contend  with  poverty  and  other  dis- 
couraging causes.  The  amount  necessary  to  secure 
the  provisions  of  the  act  of  incorporation  was,  indeed, 
over-subscribed,  for,  within  one  year  from  its  date, 
nearly  fifty  thousand  dollars  were  raised  by  private 
Subscription   towards  an  endowment.     This  subscrip- 


IN"   CONNECTICUT.  249 

tion  was  obtained  by  offering  to  the  larger  towns  in 
the  State  the  privilege  of  fair  and  laudable  compe- 
tition for  its  location,  and  Hartford,  never  wanting  in 
public  spirit  and  generous  outlays,  secured,  in  this 
way,  the  honor  of  being  its  seat. 

The  erection  of  the  college  buildings  was  com- 
menced in  June,  1824,  and  the  business  of  instruction 
in  September  of  the  same  year.  But  the  funds  sub- 
scribed were  barely  adequate  to  this  beginning.  The 
Trustees  had  already  deputed  one  of  their  number1 
to  visit  England  and  solicit  donations  towards  the 
supply  of  a  library  and  philosophical  apparatus.  He 
carried  with  him  an  address  or  general  letter  of  intro- 
duction, officially  signed,  and  directed  to  the  Bishops, 
Clergy,  and  Laity  of  the  Church  of  England.  It  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  the  original  intention  to  give 
much  publicity  to  the  object  of  this  mission,  but  on 
the  arrival  of  the  agent,  he  found  himself  in  the  way 
of  other  applicants 2  from  this  country  for  similar  aid, 
and  he  was  induced  to  print  the  letter,  together  with 
a  statement  of  his  own,  setting  forth  the  necessities 
of  the  Church  here,  and  the  more  important  facts  in 
regard  to  the  condition  of  the  two  oldest  New  England 
colleges. 

The  agent  returned  to  this  country,  with  the  dona- 
tions which  he  had  received,  soon  enough  to  be  a 
conspicuous  and  fearless  actor  in  that  war  of  pam- 
phlets which  arose  from  u  Considerations  suggested  by 
the  Establishment  of  a  Second   College  in   Connec- 

i  Rev.  N.  S.  Wheaton,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Hartford. 
2  Bishop  Hobart,  for  the  General  Theological   Seminary  ;  and  Bishop 
Chase,  of  Ohio,  to  found  the  Institutions  at  Gambier. 


250  HISTORY    OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

ticut."1  Not  only  had  zealous  endeavors  been  used  in 
various  sections  of  the  State,  to  prevent  the  subscrip- 
tion papers  from  being  rilled  up  in  order  that  the 
charter  might  take  effect,  but  even  after  the  college 
had  been  organized  and  located,  attempts  were  made 
to  interfere  with  its  success,  to  disparage  its  useful- 
ness, and  to  produce  an  impression  that  it  was  "an 
instrument  of  sectarian  aggrandizement,"  a  "  scheme 
fraught  with  the  seeds  of  discord,"  and  calculated  to 
"  entail  on  distant  generations  a  source  of  implacable 
jealousies  and  feuds."  It  was  claimed  that,  while  one 
institution  of  learning  in  the  State  was  certainly 
demanded  by  the  interests  of  literature,  a  second  was 
not ;  and  "  that  Washington  College  could  rise  into 
distinction  and  usefulness  only  by  depressing  Yale  to 
the  same  extent."  Events  have  proved  that  fears  of 
this  sort  were  wholly  groundless.  The  institution 
survived  the  early  hostility  to  its  establishment,  and 
it  did  not  sicken  and  die  when  the  State  afterwards 
refused  to  feed  it  with  a  tithe  of  the  bounty  which 
had  been  bestowed  upon  the  venerable  sister.  So 
late  as  1822,  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, recognizing  "  the  past  liberality  of  the  State," 
recited  their  necessities  in  a  memorial  to  the  General 
Assembly,  and  cheerfully  left  it  to  that  body,  "  the 
constituted  guardian  and  patron  of  the  College,  to 
direct  to  such  relief,  either  by  grant  from  the  treasury, 
or  in  some  other  way,  as  might  be  deemed  most  con- 
sistent with  the  public  good." 

1  This  was  the  title  of  the  first  anonymous  pamphlet,  which  received  an 
anonymous  reply,  and  then  a  rejoinder  followed.  The  reply,  entitled 
"  Remarks  on  Washington  College  and  on  the  Considerations  Suggested 
by  its  Establishment,"  was  written  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wheaton. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  251 

The  first  President  of  Washington  College  *  was  he 
who  scarcely  needed  a  formal  vote  to  be  placed  in 
that  office.  He  was  the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese,  and 
had  been  charged  with  the  presentation  of  the  peti- 
tion to  the  General  Assembly.  He  had  watched  its 
progress  with  solicitude,  and  witnessed  its  success  with 
delight.  Long  experience  in  academic  discipline  had 
made  him  acquainted  with  the  responsibilities  of  the 
office,  and  when  he  removed  to  Hartford  to  enter 
upon  his  enlarged  duties,  he  brought  to  his  aid  some 
of  the  best  minds  of  the  Church,  and  had  among 
the  Faculty,  Rev.  George  W.  Doane  —  afterwards 
Bishop  of  New  Jersey  —  and  Rev.  Hector  Humph- 
reys. The  great  object  in  establishing  the  college 
was  to  provide  a  place  where  the  sons  of  Episco- 
palians might  obtain  a  classical  education  without 
having  their  early  religious  predilections  tampered 
with  by  sectarian  teachers.  The  necessity  for  some 
such  institution  was  felt  by  the  General  Convention 
in  1823,  when  resolutions  were  adopted  by  that 
body,  instructing  a  committee,  among  other  things,  to 
inquire  into  the  privileges  afforded  to  Episcopalians 
in  the  existing  colleges  of  the  land,  and  also  to  re- 
port on  the  practicability  of  establishing  a  seminary 
or  seminaries  for  the  education  of  youth,  which  should 
be  under  the  influence  and  authority  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  At  that 
time,  too,  an  increase  in  the   ranks  of  the  ministry 

1  Upon  the  memorial  of  the  Trustees,  showing  that  there  were  sundry 
other  colleges  in  the  United  States  bearing  the  name  of  Washington,  the 
General  Assembly,  at  the  May  session,  1845,  changed  the  name  of  the 
corporation  to  that  of  "The  Trustees  of  Trinity  College  ;"  —  a  name 
which  "  will  attest  forever  the  faith  of  its  founders,  and  their  zeal  for  the 
perpetual  glory  and  honor  of  the  one  holy  and  undivided  Trinity." 


252  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

was  especially  needed  to  meet  the  pressing  demands 
for  the  services  of  the  Church,  both  in  the  old  and 
newly  settled  States.  There  were  about  six  hundred 
organized  parishes  in  the  whole  country,  and  scarcely 
more  than  one-half  that  number  of  clergymen  actu- 
ally engaged  in  parochial  duty.  The  General  Conven- 
tion, in  1820,  adopted  a  constitution  for  the  Domestic 
and  Foreign  Missionary  Society,  which  was  amended 
at  later  dates,  and  admitted  as  members  all  the  bish- 
ops of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  the  House 
of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  for  the  time  being,  and 
such  persons  as  subscribed  money  annually  or  for  life 
to  the  objects  of  the  organization.  In  1823,  the 
House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  deputies,  in  concluding 
their  report  on  the  general  state  of  the  Church,  in- 
vited the  attention  of  the  Bishops  to  the  following 
facts :  that  many  parishes  were  without  pastors ;  that, 
in  the  West,  there  existed  a  large  body  of  Episco- 
palians who  were  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd,  and 
that,  for  want  of  missionaries  —  for  want  of  laborers — 
the  plenteous  harvest,  as  respected  our  Church,  could 
not  be  reaped.  The  College  at  Hartford  became  one 
of  the  natural  sources  of  supply  to  this  spiritual 
destitution,  and  almost  immediately  received  a  respect- 
able number  of  students,  sixty-five  being  reported  as 
connected  with  it  in  1826.  A  good  proportion  of 
these  and  of  the  early  graduates  took  Orders  in  the 
Church,  and  radiating  in  all  directions  of  the  country, 
they  have  done  for  her  worship,  as  ministers  and 
missionaries,  what  the  friends  and  founders  of  the 
college  predicted  and  hoped  would  be  done.  Many 
charities  are  consumed  while  they  are  used.  They 
are  like  the  annual  flowers  of  the  field,  which  leave 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  253 

little  behind  them  save  the  recollection  of  their 
beauty  and  grateful  fragrance.  But  the  endowment 
of  a  seat  of  learning,  and  especially  of  Christian 
learning,  is  the  planting  of  a  tree  whose  fruits  are 
perennial,  whose  roots  strike  deeply  into  the  soil,  and 
whose  branches,  spreading  over  the  earth,  and  shoot- 
ing upward  into  the  skies,  continue  from  year  to  year, 
and  from  age  to  age,  to  reproduce  and  to  commem- 
orate the  benefaction. 

Frequent  emigrations  from  the  State  deprived  many 
of  the  parishes  of  their  most  active  members,  and 
kept  them  weak  and  depressed.  This  led  to  frequent 
changes  in  the  location  of  the  rural  clergy,  and  to  a 
feeling  in  the  depleted  parishes  that  they  were  unable 
to  make  permanent  arrangements  for  the  ministra- 
tions of  the  Church.  The  contributions  to  the  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  which  had 
now  become  the  missionary  agency  of  the  Diocese, 
would  not  yet  warrant  sufficient  appropriations  to 
render  the  connection  between  pastors  and  their  peo- 
ple less  slight  and  transient,  and  consequently  much 
of  the  benefit  that  arises  from  long  attachment  and 
mutual  intercourse  was  foregone  and  lost.  The  best 
that  the  weak  parishes  could  do  under  such  circum- 
stances was  to  unite  and  form  themselves  into  conven- 
ient cures,  but  even  this  did  not  prevent  the  evil  of 
frequent  clerical  changes,  nor  faintness  from  some- 
times coming  upon  the  spirit  of  the  people.  In  1825, 
when  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  numbered  forty-six, 
and  the  congregations  seventy-four,  Bishop  Brownell 
said  to  the  Annual  Convention,  meeting  at  Hart- 
ford :  — 

"  A  great  portion  of  our  parishes  are  small  and 


254  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

weak,  when  compared  with  the  other  religious  socie- 
ties with  which  they  are  surrounded.  Many  of  them 
are,  consequently,  but  partially  supplied  with  minis- 
terial services,  and  the  burthen  of  support  falls  heavily 
on  individuals.  In  addition  to  these  considerations, 
it  need  not  excite  our  wonder  that  some  should  be 
unwilling  to  hazard  their  popularity,  by  connecting 
themselves  with  a  body,  which  is  regarded  by  many 
of  those  around  them  as  but  a  minor  sect  of  Chris- 
tians. But  religious  prejudices  still  constitute  the  most 
formidable  obstacle  to  the  growth  of  our  Church. 
There  is  no  part  of  our  country  where  these  preju- 
dices might  be  expected  to  exist  in  greater  force  than 
in  Connecticut.  Settled  originally  by  Puritans,  who 
abandoned  their  native  country,  in  abhorrence  of  Epis- 
copacy, and  at  a  time  when  the  principles  of  religious 
liberty  were  but  little  understood,  they  naturally 
regarded  the  introduction  of  any  opinions  different 
from  their  own,  as  an  intrusion  upon  the  asylum  they 
had  chosen.  Their  early  institutions  were  calculated 
to  foster  these  sentiments,  and  it  is  no  way  extraor- 
dinary that  some  traces  of  them  should  have  been 
perpetuated  to  the  present  generation.  In  short,  the 
preponderance  of  public  sentiment  has  been  hostile 
to  our  Church,  and  the  tendency  of  the  civil  and 
religious  institutions  of  the  State  has  naturally  been 
adverse  to  its  interests.  Under  these  circumstances, 
we  have  less  cause  to  wonder  that  it  advances  so 
tardily,  than  that  its  growth  should  have  been  so 
rapid  ;  and  we  have  less  reason  to  complain  of  the 
prejudices,  and  other  obstacles  which  have  impeded 
its  growth,  than  we  have  to  admire  the  successful 
progress  of  what  we  deem  to  be  truth,  and  the  excel- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  255 

lency  of  those  doctrines  and  institutions  which  could 
overcome  such  difficulties,  and  surmount  such  obsta- 
cles. Time  is  the  great  remedy  for  all  prejudices  and 
errors.  Possessing  our  souls  in  patience,  and  doing 
whatsoever  our  hand  findeth  to  do,  we  may  abide  with 
confidence  its  salutary  operations.  The  prejudices  to 
which  I  have  alluded,  are,  moreover,  so  intimately  con- 
nected with  the  frailties  of  our  common  nature,  and 
have  resulted  so  naturally  from  the  position  in  which 
our  Church  has  been  placed,  that  we  ought  to  regard 
them  rather  in  sorrow  than  in  anger." 

The  pastoral  relation  was  sundered  in  a  few  cases 
where  no  plea  of  inability  to  support  public  ministra- 
tions could  well  be  set  up.  When  age  has  crept  upon 
the  servants  of  God,  and  they  cease  to  be  attractive 
as  preachers,  a  mere  love  of  novelty  will  sometimes 
induce  parishes  to  seek  a  change  by  pensioning  their 
venerable  rectors  in  retirement,  or  leaving  them  to 
provide  for  their  own  wTants  in  the  best  way  they  can. 
Two  presbyters,  who  were  among  the  four  candidates 
admitted  to  Holy  Orders  by  Bishop  Seabury  at  the 
first  Episcopal  Ordination  held  in  America,  after  hav- 
ing served  their  churches,  the  one  for  more  than  forty 
years,  and  the  other  for  more  than  thirty,  withdrew 
to  smaller  fields,  and  left  the  posts  they  vacated  to 
younger  men. 

The  Rev.  Philo  Shelton,  in  1824,  resigned  the 
Rectorship  of  St.  John's  Church,  Bridgeport,  and 
henceforth  confined  his  services  entirely  to  the  parish 
in  Fairfield,  which  had  always  formed  a  portion  of  his 
cure ;  and  the  Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin,  in  the  same  year, 
relinquished  the  charge  of  Christ  Church,  Stratford, 
and  found  employment  elsewhere.     They  were  neigh- 


256  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

bors  and  intimate  friends,  and  had  long  been  associ- 
ated together  as  members  of  the  Standing  Committee. 
They  had  labored  faithfully  in  the  Diocese  during  its 
darkest  periods  of  depression,  and,  through  the  pro- 
gressive stages  of  its  advancement,  they  had  taken  a 
leading  and  important  part  in  its  councils,  as  well  as 
in  the  councils  of  the  Church  at  large.  Besides  being 
frequently  delegates  to  the  General  Convention,  both 
of  them  had  held  office  in  that  body,  Mr.  Shelton 
having  been  chosen  Secretary  by  the  House  of  Bish- 
ops in  1811,  and  Mr.  Baldwin  Secretary  by  the  House 
of  Clerical  and  Lay  deputies  at  the  same  time,  in 
which  office  he  was  continued  until  his  resignation 
in  1823.  The  latter  was  also  Secretary  of  the  Dio- 
cesan Convention  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and  retired 
with  cordial  thanks  for  his  services  during  the  event- 
ful period  he  had  thus  officiated.  His  self-possession 
and  readiness  in  clearly  expressing  his  opinions,  gave 
him  great  advantage,  in  a  deliberative  assembly,  over 
many  of  his  brethren  who  were  not  inferior  to  him  in 
sound  judgment  and  general  information. 

With  other  changes  in  the  clergy,  came  those  which 
were  made  by  death.  Mr.  Shelton,  whose  latter  days 
were  embittered  by  severe  trials,  did  not  long  survive 
the  sundering  of  his  pastoral  relations.  He  was  the 
founder  of  the  church  in  Bridgeport,  "and  for  forty 
years  the  continued  promoter  of  its  best  interest,  by 
the  soundness  of  his  doctrines,  the  zeal  of  his  preach- 
ing, and  the  primitive  simplicity  of  his  conversation." 
He  died  on  the  27th  of  February,  1825,  and  no  words 
of  eulogy  were  ever  better  deserved  than  those  which 
Bishop  Brown  ell  spoke  concerning  him  in  his  address 
at  the  ensuing  Convention  :  "  For  simplicity  of  char- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  257 

acter,  amiable  manners,  unaffected  piety,  and  a  faith- 
ful devotion  to  the  duties  of  the  ministerial  office, 
he  has  left  an  example  by  which  all  his  surviving 
brethren  may  profit,  and  which  few  of  them  can  hope 
to  surpass." 

His  departure  was  soon  followed  by  that  of  another 
whose  name  stood  high  up  on  the  list  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  wisdom,  prudence,  and  moderation  of  whose 
counsels  had  contributed,  in  no  small  degree,  to  pre- 
serve the  peace  and  promote  the  prosperity  of  the 
Church  in  Connecticut.  Warned  by  the  advance  of 
years  and  the  approach  of  bodily  infirmity,  Dr.  Bron- 
son  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Annual  Convention  which 
met  at  Newtown  on  the  7th  of  June,  1826,  and,  as  it 
shows  the  man  and  outlines  the  history  of  his  minis- 
terial experience,  it  is  quoted  here  entire. 

"  Next  October  will  complete  forty  years  that  I 
have  been  in  the  ministry.  During  the  whole  of 
which  time  I  have  been  blessed  with  such  a  measure 
of  health  as  never  to  have  been  absent  from  Con- 
vention through  bodily  indisposition ;  rarely  from  any 
other  cause,  and  never  more  than  on  three  or  four 
occasions  from  the  public  service  of  the  Church,  until 
within  a  few  weeks  past.  At  this  time,  there  is  but 
one  clergyman  in  these  States  whose  letters  of  orders 
from  the  American  Episcopate  are  dated  earlier  than 
mine.  During  twenty  years  past,  just  one  half  of  my 
clerical  life,  I  have  been  honored  with  the  confidence 
of  the  Convention  in  their  choice  of  Standing  Com- 
mittee. It  is  thus  full  time  I  should  wish  to  retire 
from  the  trust.  To  this  I  am  loudly  admonished  by 
increasing  years,  and  more  by  a  bodily  infirmity 
which  threatens  to  render  me  incapable  of  discharg- 

VOL.   II.  17 


258  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

ing  the  incumbent  duty.  It  is,  therefore,  my  earnest 
desire  no  longer  to  be  considered  as  a  candidate  for 
any  appointment  in  the  gift  of  the  Convention.  With 
all  proper  sentiments  of  respect  and  gratitude  for  the 
past,  I  beg  the  acceptance  of  my  best  wishes  and 
prayers  for  the  harmony,  peace,  and  prosperity  of  the 
Church  and  Diocese,  in  which  I  have  so  long  minis- 
tered. May  the  spirit  of  Divine  Grace  pervade  all 
the  deliberations  of  the  Convention,  to  the  breaking 
down  of  Satan's  kingdom  in  men's  hearts,  and  the 
enlargement  of  the  Redeemer's  reign  upon  earth. 
And  may  the  Church  in  this  Diocese  continue,  as 
heretofore,  a  sound  member  of  the  Church  universal, 
until  the  time  shall  come  when  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  shall  bow  submissive  to  the  heavenly  kingdom 
of  the  Lord  Christ.  Though  absent  in  body,  believe 
me  present  in  mind  and  desires." 

To  this  communication,  a  suitable  answer  was  re- 
turned, and  in  just  three  months  from  its  date,  after 
repeated  attacks  of  paralysis,  the  venerable  man 
passed  to  the  reward  of  his  labors.  The  light  of  his 
virtuous  and  holy  life  was  some  consolation  to  his 
friends,  for  the  dark  cloud  which  was  thrown  over 
his  last  moments.  A  few  years  later,  his  pupils  and 
personal  friends,  bearing  in  affectionate  remembrance 
his  character  and  long  continued  services,  marked  his 
grave  by  an  appropriate  monument. 

Dr.  Bronson  was  a  man  of  delicate  sensibilities,  and 
he  would  often  weep  like  a  child  while  reading  pub- 
licly those  appointed  lessons  in  the  Calendar  that 
detail  the  history  of  Joseph  and  his  brethren.  As  a 
scholar,  his  reputation  was  deservedly  high.  He  was 
profound  and  correct,  without  being  brilliant  or  pol- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  259 

ished.  His  love  of  the  classics  increased  with  his 
years,  but  his  favorite  studies  were  mathematics  and 
natural  philosophy,  and  to  these  he  would  devote 
himself  for  hours,  unconscious  of  external  things  and 
unmindful  of  his  bodily  comfort.  He  delivered  to  his 
pupils  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  "history  of  the 
Manual  Arts,"  which,  begun  at  an  early  period  of  his 
labors  as  an  instructor,  were  perfected  as  the  advance- 
ment of  science  and  his  own  researches  furnished  ma- 
terials. Detached  parts  of  these  lectures  appeared 
in  the  "Churchman's  Magazine,"  of  which  he  was  edi- 
tor at  the  time  of  his  death.  The  last  numbers  of 
the  volume  which  was  in  hand  when  the  messenger 
came  to  call  him,  were  compiled  by  a  friend  for  the 
benefit  of  his  family,  and  then  the  publication  ceased 
to  exist,  and  the  "  Episcopal  Watchman,"  a  weekly 
periodical,  appeared  in  its  place. 

There  was  need  of  more  frequent  approaches  to 
the  people  by  the  way  of  the  press.  A  religious 
revival  was  sweeping  the  State,  and  out  of  it  was 
springing,  in  many  places,  an  uncharitable  spirit  to- 
wards the  Church.  More  vigilance,  too,  was  demanded 
on  the  part  of  the  clergy,  to  check  the  progress  of 
error  and  the  abuses  of  religion.  Two  years  before 
this  time,  Bishop  Brownell  had  said  to  the  Conven- 
tion :  — 

"  Among  the  prevailing  errors  of  the  day,  you  can- 
not fail  to  have  observed  the  pernicious  effects  of 
aniversalism,  of  fatalism,  and  of  fanaticism.  The  denial 
of  all  future  punishment  relaxes  the  morality  of  the 
gospel,  rejects  its  most  awful  sanctions,  and  gives  the 
reins  to  every  licentious  passion.  The  doctrine  that 
all  the   thoughts   and  actions  of  men  are   precisely 


260  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

fixed  and  determined  by  an  eternal  necessity,  destroys 
all  sense  of  accountability,  and  leaves  men  to  the  sole 
guidance  of  their  own  corrupt  propensities.  And  a 
fanatical  reliance  upon  imaginary  revelations  and  im- 
pulses, supersedes  and  sets  aside  the  revelation  which 
God  has  given  us  in  his  Gospel.  Thus  do  these  errors 
create  a  tendency  to  infidelity  in  those  that  embrace 
them,  while,  by  being  held  up  to  the  world  as  a  part 
of  the  Christian  system,  they  produce,  in  the  minds 
of  the  unreflecting,  a  strong  prejudice  against  the 
truth  of  Christianity  itself.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that,  in 
some  of  the  scenes  of  the  late  French  Revolution,  the 
world  has  received  such  a  lesson  upon  the  effects  of 
infidelity  as  should  not  soon  be  forgotten ;  yet,  though 
disgraced,  it  has  not  ceased  to  exist,  and  its  principles 
are  so  congenial  to  the  corruptions  of  the  heart,  so 
flattering  to  human  pride,  and  so  pleasing  to  the 
natural  love  of  novelty,  that  they  cannot  be  too 
strongly  deprecated,  or  too  strictly  guarded  against. 

"  It  is  our  part  and  duty,  my  brethren,  to  guard 
ourselves  and  our  flocks  against  the  prevailing  errors 
of  the  times,  to  exhibit  Christianity  as  it  is  in  the 
gospel,  and  to  see  that  its  real  spirit  and  temper  be 
wrought  in  our  own  hearts." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  261 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

SUPPORT  OF  THE  EPISCOPATE;  ACADEMY  AT  CHESHIRE;    MENZIES 
RAYNER;   AND  HIS  SUSPENSION  FROM  THE  MINISTRY. 

A.    D.    1826-1828. 

The  Diocese  stipulated  to  pay  Bishop  Brownell  an 
annual  salary  of  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  the  Fund, 
with  the  additions  which  were  made  to  it  soon  after 
his  consecration,  was  nearly  sufficient  to  yield  this 
income.  But  misfortunes  befell  it,  and,  in  the  autumn 
of  1825,  the  Eagle  Bank  at  New  Haven,  in  which  the 
Trustees  had  invested  five  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars,  failed,  and  the  failure  involved  other  banks  in 
the  State,  and  diminished,  for  a  while,  the  dividends 
from  those  in  which  the  remainder  of  the  Fund  was 
chiefly  invested.  The  consequence  was  that  the  an- 
nual deficiency  in  the  sum  which  the  Diocese  bound 
itself  to  raise  for  the  support  of  the  Bishop,  was  consid- 
erably increased,  and  the  several  deficiencies  amounted, 
on  the  first  of  July,  1828,  to  two  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  thirty  dollars,  without  computing  the 
interest  thereon,  which  was  justly  due.  The  incon- 
venience to  the  Bishop  was  less  felt,  for  the  reason 
that,  at  this  time,  he  was  receiving  a  salary  from  the 
College  as  its  President,  but  the  Convention  was  dis- 
satisfied with  the  constant  deficiency,  and  took  fre- 
quent steps  to  provide  for  it  and  perform  to  the  letter 
the  terms  of  the  original  obligation. 


262  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Agents  were  appointed  and  authorized  to  settle 
equitably,  according  to  their  present  circumstances, 
with  those  parishes  which  had  failed  to  comply  with 
the  assessment  laid  upon  them  in  1813,  in  exact  pro- 
portion to  the  several  amounts  of  their  grand  list. 
That  assessment  rested  solely  on  the  recommendation 
of  the  Convention  —  a  body  which  possessed  no  power 
to  enforce  a  performance  of  the  obligation,  so  that, 
after  all,  the  payment  of  it  was  nothing  more  than  a 
voluntary  gift  on  the  part  of  those  who  had  at  heart 
the  best  interests  of  the  Church.  Many  of  the  par- 
ishes submitted  to  the  assessment  with  cheerfulness, 
and  paid  promptly  and  without  hesitation  their  re- 
spective dues,  but  others,  weak,  without  the  stated 
services  of  ministers,  and  unrepresented,  perhaps,  in 
the  Convention  which  imposed  the  tax,  found  them- 
selves in  no  condition  to  meet  the  full  claims  upon 
them,  however  willing  they  might  be  to  bear  their 
proportion  in  the  support  of  the  Episcopate.  A  few 
parishes  that  possessed  ample  ability,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  illiberal  advisers,  declined  to  recognize  any 
obligation,  and  these,  with  the  other  delinquent  par- 
ishes, were  badgered  for  years  by  acts  and  agents  of 
the  Convention  until  1823,  when  the  Kev.  Stephen 
Jewett,  then  Rector  of  the  Church  in  Derby,  was 
appointed  to  visit  them  and  "make  a  settlement  of 
their  arrearages."  He  was  indefatigable  in  his  nego- 
tiations by  letters  and  repeated  visits,  and  made  a 
final  settlement  with  about  twenty  of  the  parishes, 
thus  adding  to  the  Fund  nearly  one  thousand  dollars. 
After  the  failure  of  the  Eagle  Bank,  the  remaining 
delinquents  were  again  importuned  to  assist  in  restor- 
ing the  loss,  but  the  result  was  unsatisfactory,  and 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  263 

provoked  some  irritation  without  drawing  forth  much 
money.  The  proceeds  from  the  lottery  grant,  re- 
ferred to  in  a  previous  chapter,  came  in  about  this 
time,  and  helped  to  relieve  "the  present  distress,"  but 
the  Trustees,  with  all  their  economy  and  diligence  in 
endeavoring  to  collect  the  old  assessments,  could  not 
raise  the  income  of  the  Fund  to  an  amount  equal  to 
the  annual  salary  pledged  to  the  Bishop.  The  charter 
under  which  they  acted  made  them  a  close  corpora- 
tion, and  they  filled  their  own  vacancies,  and  only 
reported  to  the  Convention  by  courtesy,  and  as  exi- 
gencies seemed  to  require.  This  was  unfavorable  to 
a  completion  of  the  endowment  of  the  Episcopate, 
and  tended  to  produce  uneasiness  in  the  minds  of 
those  who  always  dislike  anything  that  savors  of 
secrecy  in  the  management  of  public  funds. 

Besides  involving  in  loss  the  various  parishes  which 
had  made  permanent  investments  therein,  the  failure 
of  the  Eagle  Bank  impaired  the  endowment  of  the 
Episcopal  Academy  at  Cheshire.  The  Trustees  of 
that  institution  held  stock  in  the  bank  to  the  amount 
of  several  thousand  dollars,  which  thus  became  value- 
less, and  the  death  of  Dr.  Bronson  occurring  soon 
after,  and  the  College  at  Hartford  being  now  estab- 
lished and  in  full  operation,  the  Academy  languished, 
and,  for  a  time,  its  doors  were  shut.  The  Convention 
originally  had  the  power  of  appointing  the  Principal, 
and  Bishop  Brownell,  alluding  in  his  address  for  1827 
to  the  vacancy,  said :  "  It  will  be  a  matter  of  no  small 
difficulty  to  find  a  person  suitably  qualified  to  fill  this 
important  station.  If  it  should  be  hastily  and  im- 
properly filled,  the  evil  cannot  be  easily  remedied ; 
and  if  no  candidate  can  be  found  who  shall  receive 


264  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  decided  approbation  of  the  present  Convention, 
I  would  recommend  that  the  Trustees  of  the  institu- 
tion be  requested  to  procure  some  proper  teacher  to 
supply  the  vacancy  till  the  next  Annual  Convention." 

His  suggestion  was  followed,  but  the  temporary 
provision  was  uncertain,  and  failed  to  attract  students 
and  to  produce  that  benefit  to  the  Church  which  those 
who  contributed  towards  the  endowment  of  the  insti- 
tution had  a  right  to  expect.  The  desire  to  increase 
the  members  in  the  classes  of  the  new  College,  and 
the  feeling  that  the  centre  of  education  for  the 
Church  in  the  Diocese  was  changed,  may  have  led, 
for  the  time,  to  some  apparent,  if  not  real  neglect 
of  the  venerable  seminary  which  the  Episcopalians 
of  a  preceding  generation  had  founded.  The  parish 
in  Cheshire,  also,  was  too  ready  to  seize  upon  the 
Principal,  whoever  he  might  be,  and  elect  him  its 
rector.  Bishop  Brownell  called  special  attention 
again  to  the  matter  in  1829,  and  remarked:  — 

"Whether,  under  present  circumstances,  the  Acad- 
emy can  be  put  in  successful  operation,  seems  ex- 
tremely doubtful.  The  expedients  which  have  been 
adopted  by  the  Trustees,  have  hitherto  failed  of  suc- 
cess. The  funds  of  the  Academy  were  raised  for  the 
education  of  youth  under  the  auspices  of  the  Church, 
and  it  is  obvious  that  they  ought  to  be  sacredly  ap- 
plied to  this  object.  They  cannot  be  diverted  to  the 
support  of  a  parish  minister,  nor  to  constitute  a  sine- 
cure for  a  nominal  Principal.  It  therefore  becomes  a 
question  of  no  little  embarrassment,  how  this  Conven- 
tion and  the  Board  of  Trustees  shall  best  fulfil  their 
duty  to  the  founders  of  the  institution,  and  especially 
to  those  inhabitants  of  Cheshire  who  contributed  to- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  265 

wards  the  endowment.  If  no  better  resources  can  be 
devised,  I  recommend  the  continuing  the  funds  at 
interest  till  the  sum  lost  by  the  failure  of  the  Eagle 
Bank  shall  be  restored." 

The  remarks  of  the  Bishop  were  referred  to  a  com- 
mittee, who  made  a  report  of  considerable  length, 
meeting  the  various  points  of  the  case,  objecting  to 
the  scheme  of  leaving  the  funds  to  accumulate,  and 
concluding  in  these  words  :  — 

"  Under  the  conviction  before  expressed  of  the  ill 
consequences  resulting  from  the  union  of  the  Acad- 
emy and  church,  your  committee  respectfully  and 
unanimously  recommend  the  adoption  of  the  following 
resolution  :  Resolved,  That,  in  the  opinion  of  this  Con- 
vention, it  is  inexpedient  that  the  same  gentleman 
should  fill  the  office  of  Principal  of  the  Episcopal 
Academy  at  Cheshire,  and  pastor  of  the  Episcopal 
congregation  in  that  place." 

This  resolution,  which  the  Convention  adopted,  was 
good  on  paper,  but  the  year  had  not  ended  before 
both  its  spirit  and  letter  were  violated  in  the  appoint- 
ment of  the  Rev.  Christian  F.  Cruse  to  the  united 
charge  of  the  Academy  and  the  church.  His  con- 
nection in  this  capacity  was  of  brief  continuance,  for 
he  removed  from  the  Diocese  early  in  the  winter  of 
1831,  having  been  invited  to  a  more  congenial  field 
of  labor.  His  successors  and  the  changes  in  the 
organization  and  management  of  the  institution  will 
be  noted  hereafter  in  their  proper  places. 

An  effort  to  revise  the  Canons  and  establish  a  more 
specific  code  was  begun  in  1821,  and  continued  through 
a  period  of  five  years.  The  progress  of  events  in  the 
Church  seemed  to  render  some  legislation  of  this  kind 


266  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

necessary,  and  the  call  for  fuller  parochial  statistics, 
and  for  more  care  in  the  maintenance  and  regulation 
of  cures,  could  be  met  in  no  way  so  directly  as  by  a 
canonical  provision.  Since  the  accession  of  Bishop 
Brownell  to  the  Episcopate,  the  number  of  the  clergy 
had  increased  from  forty  to  upwards  of  fifty  —  but 
some  of  these  were  infirm,  and  others,  perhaps  from 
insufficient  support,  were  inclined  frequently  to  change 
their  positions  in  the  Diocese  without  due  regard  to 
the  welfare  of  the  parishes,  or  without  consulting  the 
ecclesiastical  authority.  The  worldly  inducements  to 
enter  on  the  office  of  the  Christian  ministry,  never  a 
matter  of  temptation  in  this  country,  were  in  no  part 
of  it  more  humble  than  in  Connecticut.  The  salaries 
of  rectors,  from  the  establishment  of  the  Church,  had 
been  small,  especially  in  the  rural  districts,  but  with 
the  prosperity  of  the  State  and  the  contributions  to 
the  Christian  Knowledge  Society,  came  a  better  pro- 
vision for  their  support. 

The  Annual  Convention  which  met  at  Norwalk  in 
1828,  arranged  all  the  parishes  into  forty-four  cures, 
and  enacted  a  canon  making  it  "  the  duty  of  the 
Convention,  from  time  to  time,  to  examine  and  declare 
the  limits  of  the  several  cures  within  the  Diocese,  and, 
in  the  settlement  and  maintenance  of  clergymen," 
the  parishes  were  required  not  to  depart  from  "  such 
arrangement  except  in  cases  of  imperious  necessity, 
and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authority.''  This  legislation  was  intended,  while  the 
dearth  of  clergymen  continued,  to  reach,  with  stated 
ministrations,  the  destitute  portions  of  the  Diocese. 

The  "  Church  Scholarship  Society,"  founded  in  pur- 
suance  of  a  communication   by  the   Bishop   to   the 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  267 

Annual  Convention  of  1827,  offered  its  first  report 
the  ensuing  year,  in  which  the  Directors  said :  — 

"Many  members  of  the  Convention  had  long  seen 
the  need  of  an  Education  Society,  to  be  formed  on 
principles  somewhat  varying  from  others  then  in 
being ;  and  the  interest  which  they  took  in  its  estab- 
lishment has  received  substantial  approbation  in  every 
portion  of  the  Church  where  its  claims  have  been  pre- 
sented. If  the  object  were  one  of  doubtful  utility  or 
success;  if,  while  promoting  the  good  of  our  fellow- 
men,  it  did  not  exercise  and  improve  some  of  the  best 
of  human  feelings,  or  if  it  did  not  promise,  in  some 
good  degree,  to  advance  the  interests  of  true  religion, 
the  Directors  would  hesitate  to  urge  its  further  con- 
sideration. But  if  there  be  truth  in  the  maxim  that 
knowledge  is  power,  and  if  it  be  important  to  enlist  this 
power  in  the  cause  of  the  Church,  surely  we  cannot 
falter  in  our  endeavors  to  procure  the  means  for  so 
desirable  an  end.  That  meritorious  young  men, 
members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  studying 
under  the  embarrassments  of  poverty,  may  be  assisted 
and  prepared  for  usefulness,  either  as  members  of  our 
laity  or  clergy,  the  friends  of  the  Church  Scholarship 
Society  hope,  by  the  blessing  of  Heaven  on  their 
labors,  abundantly  to  accomplish. 

"It  will  be  recollected  that  the  Constitution  requires 
no  restraint  on  the  choice  of  a  profession  at  so  early 
a  stage  in  education  as  to  render  an  unbiassed  decis- 
ion difficult  or  improbable.  It  will  not  be  disguised 
that  we  may  earnestly  desire  to  educate  many  minis- 
ters for  our  altars,  but  we  would  put  no  such  bond 
on  the  conscience  of  any,  and,  least  of  all,  would  we 
apply  to  any  mind  an  unworthy  motive  to  a  choice, 


268  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

which,  however  deliberately  formed  by  a  young  and 
ardent  spirit,  a  further  knowledge  of  the  world,  and 
a  deeper  insight  into  the  hidden  things  of  the  heart, 
might  make  it  desirable  to  rescind.  We  would  not 
that  any  individual,  however  much  his  talents  might 
promise,  should  become  a  candidate  for  the  sacred 
office  from  motives  of  mere  gratitude  to  his  patrons, 
or,  indeed,  without  feeling  himself,  on  the  deepest  and 
most  rational  convictions,  moved  thereto  by  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

a  The  cause  of  this  society,  then,  is  the  common 
cause  of  learning  and  religion,  and  it  will  be  success- 
ful in  proportion  as  men  of  real  worth  and  talents 
shall  be  aided  to  surmount  the  difficulties  of  poverty, 
and  to  occupy  useful  stations  in  the  learned  profes- 
sions. It  is  true  that  genius  will,  at  some  rate,  work 
its  own  way  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  and  we  would 
be  far  from  lending  encouragement  to  inaction,  and 
from  sparing  any  young  men  in  straitened  circum- 
stances the  salutary  necessity  of  making  themselves. 
Such  a  scheme  would  be  unnecessary  and  unwise,  if 
not  positively  hurtful.  We  would  have  no  drones 
fattening  upon  the  fruits  of  our  labors.  Our  wish  is 
to  extend  only  a  partial  support  —  enough,  however, 
to  enable  our  young  friends  to  toil  their  arduous 
pathway  up  the  hill  of  science  without  lagging  under 
the  lengthened  chain  of  debt,  by  which  many  gen- 
erous spirits  are  dragged  down  and  lost  to  that  sphere 
of  usefulness,  which  a  little  succor  would  have  em- 
powered them  to  reach.  They  whom  we  would  aid, 
should  learn  to  rely  on  themselves,  to  put  forth  all 
their  energies,  and  they  should  seek  no  indulgence 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  269 

but  that  of  equal  privilege  for  study  with  those  whose 
collegiate  course  is  uninterrupted."1 

The  Society  was  the  child  of  the  Convention,  and 
the  foregoing  extract  from  the  first  Annual  Report  of 
the  Board  of  Directors  will  show  the  spirit  and  design 
of  its  founders.  The  Constitution  limited  assistance 
to  the  form  of  loans,  and  to  students  in  the  College  at 
Hartford,  and  these  loans  were  to  be  repaid,  without 
interest,  within  three  years  from  the  time  of  leaving 
college.  By  his  own  note  the  student  became  re- 
sponsible for  the  sums  received,  and,  when  returned, 
they  were  to  be  used  again  in  aiding  other  meritorious 
young  men,  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  in  the 
attainment  of  a  collegiate  education.  Though  a  loan- 
ing society,  it  has  been  the  means  of  doing  much 
good,  and  the  lengthening  the  list  of  the  clergy  of  the 
Diocese,  shortly  after  its  organization,  was  due  in  no 
small  measure  to  its  beneficent  agency.  It  is  still  in 
existence,  modestly  continuing  its  work,  and,  by  a 
canon  of  the  Diocese,  each  parish  is  required  to  make 
an  annual  collection  in  aid  of  its  funds. 

Among  the  canons  that  underwent  the  revision  of 
1821,  were  those  which  declared  the  offences  for  which 
a  clergyman  may  be  brought  to  trial,  and  the  manner 
of  his  trial.  The  constitution  of  the  ecclesiastical 
court,  the  notification  to  the  offender,  the  charges 
made  against  him,  and  the  form  of  proceedings,  were 
all  detailed  by  the  new  Canon  with  a  minuteness 
which  left  no  room  for  doubt  or  misunderstanding. 
Under  the  old  law,  it  was  provided  that  an  indefinite 
number  of  persons,  accusing  a  minister  of  offences  for 
which  he  might  be  tried,  should  apply  in  writing  first 

1  Journal  of  Diocesan  Convention  1828,  pp.  38,  39. 


270  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

to  the  Standing  Committee,  and  if  it  appeared  to 
them  that  there  was  ground  for  the  charges,  they 
were  to  report  to  the  Bishop,  who  thereupon  "  called 
a  convention  of  the  clergy  (not  less  than  seven),  and, 
after  a  full  and  fair  examination,  the  Bishop,  with  the 
advice  of  the  clergy  present,  should  pronounce  sen- 
tence against  him." 

The  new  Canon  was  specific,  and  required  two  per- 
sons, one  of  whom  must  be  a  presbyter  of  the  Dio- 
cese, to  bring  the  charges,  under  their  own  signature, 
to  the  Standing  Committee,  and  if  the  Committee 
deemed  them  properly  made,  they  notified  the  Bishop 
that  there  was  sufficient  ground  for  presenting  the 
offender  for  trial,  and  they  prepared  to  act  as  prose- 
cutors before  the  court  of  nine  presbyters  subse- 
quently designated  to  hear  the  case. 

The  first  clergyman  who  fell  under  the  operation 
of  this  Canon  was  the  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner.  He  had 
been  conspicuous  in  the  councils  of  the  Diocese  for  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  had  used  his  pen  freely  in  con- 
troversy, and  participated  in  some  of  the  sharpest 
theological  disputes  of  the  day.  Quick-witted,  as 
shown  in  a  former  chapter,  and  rather  belligerent  in 
his  temperament,  but  deficient  in  the  refinements  of 
literary  culture,  he  was  a  bold  assailant,  and  thought 
little  and  cared  less  about  the  storms  that  might  arise 
from  encountering  the  prejudices  and  opposing  the 
views  of  Christian  people  from  whom  he  widely  dif- 
fered. Calvinism  was  the  ghost  that  constantly  dis- 
turbed him  in  his  religious  dreams,  and  he  fought  it 
like  a  tiger.  Whenever  it  rose  before  him,  he  in- 
stantly prepared  himself  for  battle,  and  with  a  feeling 
of  conscious  ability,  and  flattered  by  the  praise  of 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  271 

men  who  love  the  prophets  that  "speak  unto  them 
smooth  things,"  he  overlooked  the  principles  of  the 
Church,  and  fell  into  the  habit  of  countenancing  and 
disseminating  opinions  contrary  to  her  doctrines  and 
discipline.  He  sprung  to  the  opposite  extreme  from 
Calvinism,  and  the  dissertations  in  dogmatic  theology 
which  he  uttered,  both  from  the  pulpit  and  from  the 
press,  finally  awakened  the  fears  of  his  friends  and 
parishioners,  and  led  them  to  charge  him  with  holding 
and  teaching  the  doctrine  of  Universal  salvation.  In- 
stead of  quieting  their  suspicions,  and  convincing 
them  that  he  was  sound  in  the  faith  and  accepted  the 
generally  received  and  Scriptural  view  of  the  future 
punishment  of  the  wicked,  he  grew  bolder  in  the 
utterance  of  his  opinions,  and  complied  with  invita- 
tions from  Universalists  to  preach  in  school-houses, 
public  halls,  and  private  residences,  where  the  rubrics 
and  liturgy  of  the  Church  were,  for  the  most  part, 
disregarded,  and  the  impression  produced  that  he  was 
a  great  champion,  in  the  priestly  office,  of  the  cause 
of  Universalism.  His  controversies,  about  this  time, 
were  not  wholly  confined  to  religious  matters,  for  at 
a  Convocation  of  the  clergy  held  in  Newtown,  June, 
1826,  he  "obtained  liberty  to  make  a  statement  in 
relation  to  a  lawsuit  in  which  he  was  interested." 
This  was  a  suit  brought  by  himself  against  a  fellow 
townsman  for  defamation.  It  grew  out  of  his  defence 
of  Universalism,  and  although  it  was  decided  in  his 
favor,  and  he  recovered  damages  to  the  amount  of 
seven  hundred  dollars,  yet  he  was  unable  to  regain 
the  confidence  and  affections  of  his  people,  and  the 
parish  in  Ripton  speedily  devised  measures  to  termi- 
nate his  rectorship.     Other  suits  followed,  one  with 


272  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

a  physician  in  Ripton,  a  prominent  churchman,  who 
had  been  his  fast  friend,  and  for  some  time  Mr.  Rayner 
gave  more  attention  to  the  civil  courts  than  was  con- 
sistent with  the  office  of  a  priest,  appointed  to  serve 
"in  the  courts  of  the  house  of  our  God." 

Until  1823,  the  Episcopalians  in  the  town  of  Hun- 
tington formed  one  incorporated  society  with  two 
churches,  and  the  worshippers  in  these  were  not  to 
tax  each  other  for  repairs,  or  any  "expense  except 
for  the  support  of  a  clergyman."  But  in  that  year 
the  Episcopalians  in  the  part  of  the  town  then  called 
New  Stratford  (now  Monroe),  petitioned  the  General 
Assembly  "  to  be  incorporated  into  a  separate  and 
distinct  ecclesiastical  society,"  and  also  asked  that  the 
fund  and  other  property  belonging  to  the  whole  in 
common,  might  be  divided  and  apportioned  between 
the  two  parishes  of  Ripton  and  New  Stratford,  so  that 
each  should  have  the  power  to  manage  its  own  con- 
cerns, and  possess  and  control  that  portion  of  the 
fund  which  was  subscribed  within  its  particular  limits. 
The  petition  was  granted,  and  the  division  peaceably 
consummated  according  to  a  mutual  understanding  of 
the  two  parishes,  but  it  involved  no  change  in  the 
pastoral  relations  of  Mr.  Rayner.  He  continued  his 
residence  at  Ripton  and  officiated  as  before  in  the  two 
churches,  but  there  was  a  growing  discontent  among 
the  people  of  that  place,  which  came  to  a  head  in 
midsummer,  1826.  Then  the  difficulties  between  him- 
self and  the  parish  at  Ripton  were  carried  before  the 
Bishop  and  Standing  Committee  of  the  Diocese,  and 
upon  their  recommendation,  the  connection  was  soon 
after  dissolved.  Mr.  Rayner  transferred  his  residence 
to  Monroe,  and  the  parish  there  —  whether  desiring 


IK  CONNECTICUT.  273 

them  or  not  —  had,  for  a  time,  the  full  benefit  of  his 
ministrations.  He  claimed  a  settlement  for  life,  and 
the  people,  learning  wisdom  from  the  dear  experience 
of  Ripton,  quietly  waited  the  action  of  the  ecclesias- 
tical authority  to  dispose  of  his  case. 

On  the  7th  of  November,  1827,  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee met  at  Stratford,  and  the  following  document, 
duly  signed,  in  conformity  with  the  Canon,  by  two 
persons,  one  a  presbyter  and  the  other  a  layman  of 
the  Diocese,  was  received  and  considered :  — 

"Whereas  it  is  commonly  reported  and  believed, 
that  the  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner,  a  presbyter  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Con- 
necticut, is  in  the  habit  of  countenancing  and  dissemi- 
nating opinions  which  are  contrary  to  the  doctrines 
of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United 
States ;  and  also,  that  the  said  Rayner  is  in  the  habit 
of  public  preaching,  without  using  the  Liturgy  of  the 
Church,  and  further,  that  his  conduct,  for  some  time 
past,  has  been  unbecoming  the  character  of  a  Christian 
minister :  — 

"  Now,  therefore,  we,  the  undersigned,  earnestly  de- 
sirous that  the  truth  of  the  said  reports  should  be 
investigated,  agreeably  to  the  fourth  Canon  of  the 
Convention  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  do  hereby 
charge  the  said  Menzies  Rayner  with  the  above  recited 
offences,  and  present  the  same  for  the  consideration 
of  the  Standing  Committee." 

In  consequence  of  information  received  from  the 
Bishop  that  Mr.  Rayner  had  assured  him  that  "he 
would  immediately  make  the  declaration  required  by 
the  seventh  Canon  of  the  General  Convention  of  1820, 
to  enable  the  Bishop  to  suspend  him  from  the  min- 

VOL.   II.  18 


274  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

istry  of  the  Church  without  trial,"  the  Committee 
decided  to  postpone  all  proceedings  on  the  charges 
until  further  informed,  and  when  they  met  again,  two 
months  afterwards,  he  had  relinquished  his  ministry 
in  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  been  suspended  from 
the  exercise  of  its  office.1 

This  was  not  the  first  change  which  he  had  made, 
having  been,  in  early  life,  a  Methodist  preacher.  It 
was  evidently  no  sudden  step  with  him,  and  in  pre- 
paring for  it  he  watched  his  opportunities  well,  and 
obtained  from  the  Universalist  Society  in  Hartford 
overtures  tantamount  to  a  call,  before  finally  leaving 
the  fold  which  had  enclosed  him  in  love  for  so  many 
years.  He  removed  back  to  the  city  where  he  first 
began  his  Episcopal  ministry  in  Connecticut,  but  his 
old  friends  did  not  welcome  him  in  the  new  capacity 
of  a  Universalist  preacher.  Whatever  regard  they 
had  for  the  man,  they  had  more  for  the  Church  of 
Christ,  and  the  same  might  be  said  of  those  who  sus- 
tained him  to  the  last  in  the  cure  where  Providence 
permitted  him  to  sow  seed  that  sprang  up  and  yielded 
a  plentiful  crop  of  religious  doubt  and  indifferentism. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  record  his  history  in  the 
new  pastoral  relations  to  which  he  devoted  the  re- 
mainder of  his  days.  Enough  will  have  been  said 
when  it  is  mentioned  that  he  lived  on,  beyond  the 
time  of  his  renunciation  of  the  Episcopal  ministry, 
a  score  of  years  or  more,  leaving  Hartford  after  a 
brief  connection  with  the  Universalist  Society  there, 
and  residing  in  different  places  out  of  the  State,  ac- 
cording as  he  could  find  the  best  support  for  him- 
self and  his  family.     He  made  occasional  visits  to  his 

1  Appendix  C. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  275 

former  friends  in  Connecticut  whom  he  had  indoctri- 
nated with  his  sentiments,  and  sometimes  he  taxed 
the  courtesy  of  his  Episcopal  acquaintance  to  aid  him 
in  procuring  a  hall  or  school-house  to  preach  in ;  but 
these  visits  could  not  have  afforded  him  much  satis- 
faction, when  he  saw  the  communion  which  he  had 
forsaken  growing  everywhere  with  such  fair  propor- 
tions, and  the  sect,  to  the  bosom  of  which  he  had 
fled,  still  struggling  to  plant  its  foot  firmly  upon  the 
soil. 


276  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XX. 

NEW  PARISHES;  PROPOSED  CHANGES  IN  THE  LITURGY;  VISIT  OF 
THE  BISHOP  TO  THE  SOUTHWESTERN  STATES;  AND  LACK  OF 
CLERGYMEN. 

A.  D.  1828-1831. 

For  a  period  of  ten  years  the  outward  prosperity 
of  the  Diocese  had  been  seen,  not  so  much  in  the 
formation  of  new  parishes  as  in  the  vigor  and  growth 
of  those  already  established.  Several  of  them  had 
erected  larger  and  better  edifices  to  take  the  place  of 
the  rude  structures  built  before  the  Revolutionary 
War.  and  in  1828,  the  parishes  of  Christ  Church,  Hart- 
ford, and  Christ  Church,  Norwich,  proceeded  each  to 
the  erection  of  a  stone  edifice  in  the  Gothic  style  of 
architecture.  That  at  Hartford  was  the  design  of  the 
Rector  (Rev.  N.  S.  Wheaton),  and  was  modelled  mainly 
after  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven.  Standing  on  the 
corner-stone,  which  was  laid  May  13th,  1828,  and 
referring  to  the  superstructure,  Mr.  Wheaton,  among 
other  things,  said  :  — 

"We  build  this  house  in  Faith.  We  have  the  divine 
assurance  that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail 
against  the  Church ;  and  it  is  therefore  with  no  feel- 
ings of  distrust  that  we  strengthen  our  hands  for  the 
work. 

"We  build  this  house  in  Hope.  We  are  animated 
by  the  expectation  that  many  sons  and  daughters  will 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  277 

here  be  born  to  God,  that  many  sinners  will  be  re- 
claimed and  fitted  for  eternal  glory.  For  ourselves, 
we  anticipate,  if  such  is  God's  pleasure,  the  enjoyment 
of  many  days  of  holy  communion  with  Him  in  this 
house,  and  when  our  voices  have  ceased  to  roll  along 
its  walls,  and  our  heads  are  laid  low  in  the  dust,  it 
is  our  confidence  that  a  generation  will  not  be  want- 
ing to  perpetuate  our  hymns  to  Christ,  the  King  of 
Glory. 

"We  build  this  house  in  Charity.  While  we  con- 
scientiously differ  from  some  of  our  Christian  brethren, 
and  on  points  not  unimportant,  we  desire  to  be  united 
with  all  who  love  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sincerity,  in  the 
bonds  of  Christian  love.  Most  devoutly  do  we  pray, 
also,  that  the  harmony  of  feeling  which  pervades  the 
parish  in  relation  to  our  undertaking  may  continue 
and  increase.  It  will  be  the  surest  pledge  of  our 
prosperity,  that  our  Jerusalem  is  built  as  a  city  that 
is  at  unity  in  itself.  0  pray  then  for  her  peace,  that 
it  may  be  found  within  her  walls,  and  knit  all  hearts 
together  in  the  bonds  of  a  close  and  holy  fellow- 
ship." 

The  church  was  consecrated  the  next  year,  two  clays 
before  Christmas,  by  Bishop  Hobart,  in  the  absence  of 
the  Bishop  of  the  Diocese. 

An  edifice  of  stone  in  the  Gothic  style  was  also 
built  at  Kent,  and  consecrated  late  in  the  summer  of 
1827,  —  being  "the  fourth  church  erected,  in  'four 
adjoining  towns,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Rev.  George 
B.  Andrews."  The  other  three  were  in  Sharon,  New 
Preston,  and  Salisbury,  and  were  constructed  of  brick. 
Still  earlier  than  this,  a  new  brick  church  at  Hebron 
had  been  consecrated,  in  the  autumn  of  1826,  which 


278  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Bishop  Brownell,  in  his  address  to  the  Convention  the 
next  year,  thus  described :  "  In  point  of  beauty  and 
design,  and  excellence  of  workmanship,  it  may  prob- 
ably rank  as  the  second  church  in  the  Diocese,  — 
Trinity  Church  at  New  Haven  being  the  only  edifice 
which  is  superior  to  it." 

But  now  new  parishes  were  beginning  to  be  organ- 
ized in  places  where,  hitherto,  there  had  either  been 
no  call  for  the  services  of  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  or 
where  they  had  been  only  occasionally  rendered.  The 
church  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  State,  built  before 
the  revolution  on  the  confines  of  Pomfret,  Canterbury, 
and  Plainfield,  did  not  suit  the  convenience  of  the 
Episcopalians  residing  in  Pomfret,  and  they  formed 
themselves  into  a  parish,  which  was  admitted  into 
union  with  the  Convention  at  its  session  in  Norwalk, 
1828.  The  next  year  an  organization  was  effected  in 
Hitchcocksville  (now  Riverton),  Litchfield  County, 
under  the  direction  of  a  missionary  of  the  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  and  an 
expensive  stone  church  was  begun,  and,  after  a  while, 
completed  with  the  aid  of  contributions  from  other 
parts  of  the  Diocese.  But  the  prosperity  of  the  vil- 
lage suddenly  declined,  and  the  enterprise  proved 
unsuccessful,  though  more  recently  the  parish  has 
been  revived,  and  the  hope  is  now  entertained  that  it 
will  ultimately  flourish. 

THe  parish  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  received 
such  accessions  from  the  increase  of  the  city  and  other 
causes,  that  it  was  found  necessary,  in  1828,  to  call  an 
assistant  minister  (Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks),  and  to 
adopt  measures  to  erect  a  chapel  in  another  part  of 
the  city  for  the  better  accommodation  of  the  wor- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  279 

shippers.  It  was  a  spacious  Gothic  edifice,  the  fifth 
of  our  churches  in  the  Diocese  built  of  stone,  and 
was  consecrated  April,  1830.  It  was  the  first  instance 
of  erecting  a  second  Episcopal  church  in  any  city  of 
Connecticut,  and  the  plan  pursued  to  raise  the  money 
to  meet  the  expense  was  the  same  as  in  the  case  of 
building  the  mother  church.  Bishop  Brownell,  in  his 
address  for  1829,  said:  — 

"Since  the  last  Annual  Convention,  I  have  visited 
more  than  half  the  parishes  in  this  Diocese,  and, 
owing  to  its  compactness  and  the  facility  of  inter- 
course, have  had  opportunities  for  receiving  informa- 
tion from  most  of  the  others.  While  a  few  of  these 
parishes  continue  to  languish,  through  adverse  dis- 
pensations of  Providence,  or  from  a  want  of  zeal  in 
the  people,  the  general  aspect  of  the  Diocese  is  cal- 
culated to  inspire  us  with  hope,  and  to  fill  us  with 
gratitude.  Most  of  the  congregations  appear  to  be 
increasing  in  numbers  and  strength,  and  in  several 
instances,  where  a  few  years  ago  the  united  exertions 
of  two  neighboring  congregations  could  hardly  sup- 
port a  clergyman,  each  one  is  now  in  the  full  enjoy- 
ment of  the  regular  ministrations  of  the  gospel.  Some 
new  parishes  have  recently  been  organized,  and  I 
have  lately  received  pressing  calls  for  missionary  ser- 
vices, with  a  fair  promise  of  usefulness,  in  places  where 
the  ministrations  of  our  Church  have  never  yet  been 
dispensed.  Since  my  removal  to  this  Diocese,  little 
more  than  nine  years  ago,  I  have  consecrated  eleven 
churches,  nearly  all  of  which  have  been  built  within 
that  period.  It  gives  me  peculiar  satisfaction  to  add 
that  active  exertions  are,  at  the  present  time,  in 
progress  for  the  erection  of  ten  new  churches,  three 


280  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

of  which  are  in  parishes  newly  organized.  Within 
the  period  above  alluded  to,  the  number  of  the  clergy 
belonging  to  the  Diocese  has  increased  from  thirty- 
four  *  to  fifty -nine,  and  there  are,  at  the  present  time, 
five  vacant  parishes  capable  of  supporting  settled 
clergymen,  besides  one  vacant  missionary  station.  If 
the  spiritual  state  of  our  Church  should  have  ad- 
vanced in  improvement,  in  the  same  ratio  with  its 
external  growth,  we  should,  indeed,  have  great  cause 
for  mutual  felicitations.  Within  the  last  few  years,  a 
decided  revival  of  Christian  zeal  seems  to  have  per- 
vaded the  great  body  of  our  Church,  and  may  we  not 
hope  that  this  Diocese  has  participated,  in  no  small 
degree,  in  its  animating  spirit  ?  " 

Among  the  "  ten  new  churches,"  referred  to  in  this 
extract,  were  those  at  Windham,  Chatham  (now  Port- 
land), and  Middle  town.  The  two  latter  were  in  a 
style  of  Grecian  architecture,  and  constructed  of  the 
brown  sandstone,  taken  from  the  celebrated  quarries 
in  the  neighborhood.  The  church  at  Windham  was 
built  of  granite,  and  the  parish  there  was  a  new 
organization.  An  Episcopal  Society  was  started  in 
the  town  as  early  as  1804,  but  "after  maintaining 
worship  about  a  year,  the  members  voted  to  join  the 
First  [Congregational]  Society  in  the  support  of  the 
gospel  ministry."  A  new  parish  was  organized  at 
Saybrook  —  a  place  where  sixteen  men,  twelve  of 
them  Congregational  ministers,  met  in  September, 
1708,  and  adopted  a  platform  which,  receiving,  a 
month  later,  the  approbation  of  the  General  Assem- 

1  This  was  the  number  recorded  as  present  at  the  consecration  of  Bishop 
Brownell,  but  six  clergymen  "  belonging  to  the  Diocese  "  were  absent  at 
that  time,  among  them  Mansfield  and  Tyler. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  281 

bly,  became  the  legal  ecclesiastical  establishment  in 
Connecticut.  It  was  natural  that  some  feeling  should 
be  exhibited  when  steps  were  taken  to  introduce 
the  Episcopal  form  of  worship1  into  a  town  around 
which  clustered,  for  the  Congregationalists,  such  pecu- 
liar historic  associations. 

The  Convention  of  1829  appointed  a  committee  to 
take  into  consideration  the  state  of  the  Church  in  the 
Diocese,  but  nothing  of  importance  was  elicited  in 
this  way.  A  brief  extract  from  their  report  will  show 
that  the  spiritual  building  was,  as  it  always  should  be, 
the  main  concern  of  the  clergy. 

"To  secure  the  future  prosperity  of  the  Church,  the 
harmonious  efforts  of  both  ministers  and  people  must 
bring  into  action  the  feelings  of  the  heart,  the  powers 
of  the  mind,  and  the  devotedness  of  the  soul  to  God. 
The  externals  of  religion  may  be  beautiful  and  splen- 

1  "  Now  we  turn  the  leaf,  and  see  a  page  altogether  different  —  a  page 
blotted  by  disunion  and  the  rendings  of  deforming  schism.  As  early  as 
the  beginning  of  February  [1830],  the  month  anterior  to  the  great  acces- 
sion to  this  Church,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  full  flow  of  revival  feelings,  and 
the  all-thrilling  sympathies  of  religious  excitement,  some  of  our  opulent 
citizens  invited  an  Episcopal  clergyman  to  officiate  in  private  dwellings, 
and  hold  a  weekly  evening  service.  These  meetings  continued,  week  by 
week,  either  in  those  mansions  or  the  school-house,  till,  on  April  9th,  they 
observed  a  public  day  of  worship,  on  Good  Friday.  On  May  31st,  as  I 
understood,  they  organized  their  church,  and  elected  their  wardens  and 
vestrymen.  On  the  9th  of  August,  1830,  the  corner  stone  of  the  Epis- 
copal church  was  laid,  and,  in  the  next  year,  Aug.  16th,  1831,  the  church 
was  consecrated.  Public  worship  has  been  sustained  by  them  to  the 
present  time,  and  we  have  now  two  houses  of  worship  within  our  local 
boundaries.  All  this  constitutes  a  new  era  in  my  ministry,  and  in  the 
religious  history  of  Saybrook."  —  Rev.  F.  W.  Hotchkiss'  Half  Century 
Sermon,  1833,  pp.  13,  14. 

The  clergyman  who  held  the  "  weekly  evening  services "  was  the  Rev. 
Ashbel  Steele,  a  Missionary  of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian 
Knowledge. 


282  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

did,  and  the  form  of  godliness  may  spread  far  and 
wide ;  but  what  are  these  when  its  power  is  not 
deeply  felt,  or  when  the  holy  truths,  sealed  by  the 
blood  of  apostles  and  martyrs,  are  rejected  or  coldly 
assented  to  ?  The  sinfulness  of  the  human  heart  must 
be  felt,  faith  in  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ  must  be 
consented  to  in  the  affections,  and  all  the  duties  of 
Christianity  practiced,  to  render  the  spiritual  building 
of  God  all  glorious  iviihin.  Sacrifices  must  be  made, 
and  the  standard  of  the  cross  must  be  raised  over  the 
ruins  of  pride  and  selfishness  and  vanity,  for  the 
safety  of  our  own  souls  and  the  souls  of  our  fellow 
men." 

Up  to  this  time  Bishop  Brown  ell  had  administered 
the  rite  of  confirmation  to  three  thousand  three  hun- 
dred and  seventy-four  persons. 

Since  the  revision  by  the  General  Convention  of 
1789,  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  had  undergone 
no  changes.  Some  dissatisfaction  was  occasionally 
expressed  with  the  length  of  the  morning  service, 
but,  for  the  most  part,  the  members  of  our  communion 
were  entirely  contented  with  the  Liturgy,  and  opposed 
to  alterations. 

At  the  General  Convention  of  1826,  the  House  of 
Bishops,  then  composed  of  ten  members,  and  all  being 
present  except  two,  unanimously  recommended  cer- 
tain changes  in  the  order  for  reading  the  Psalter  and 
Lessons,  in  the  office  of  Confirmation,  and  in  the  rubric 
at  the  end  of  the  Communion  service.  These  changes 
were  proposed  by  Bishop  Hobart,  and  the  preamble 
which  accompanied  his  resolutions  stated  that  the 
House  of  Bishops  were  "  deeply  solicitous  to  preserve 
unimpaired  the  Liturgy  of  the  Church,  and  yet  de- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  283 

sirous  to  remove  the  reasons  alleged,  from  the  sup- 
posed length  of  the  service,  for  the  omission  of  some 
of  its  parts,  and  particularly  for  the  omission  of  that 
part  of  the  Communion  office  which  is  commonly 
called  the  Ante-communion."  The  resolution  which 
related  to  the  reading  of  holy  Scripture,  provided  that 
"  the  minister  may,  at  his  discretion,  instead  of  the 
entire  Lessons,  read  suitable  portions  thereof,  not  less 
than  fifteen  verses.  And  on  other  days  than  Sundays 
and  holy  days,  in  those  places  where  Morning  and 
Evening  Prayer  is  not  daily  used,  he  may  read  other 
portions  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  instead  of 
the  prescribed  Lessons."  An  alternative  preface  was 
to  be  inserted  in  the  Order  of  Confirmation,  and  also 
another  collect,  which  might  be  used,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  Bishop,  instead  of  the  first  collect. 

The  resolutions  were  not  concurred  in  by  the  House 
of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies,  and  submitted  to  the 
consideration  of  the  different  dioceses,  without  stren- 
uous opposition.  Of  the  four  clerical  and  two  lay 
delegates  present  from  Connecticut,  three  of  the  former 
and  one  of  the  latter  voted  against  them,  and  Bishop 
Brownell,  in  his  address  to  the  Diocesan  Convention 
of  1829,  thus  stated  his  objections:  — 

"  The  consideration  of  the  proposed  alterations  in 
the  Liturgy  of  our  Church  was  postponed  to  the  pres- 
ent Convention.  I  had  purposed  to  avail  myself  of 
this  occasion  fully  to  express  my  views  on  the  subject, 
but  the  sense  of  the  Church  appears  to  be  so  decidedly 
averse  to  the  alterations,  that  I  think  there  is  no  prob- 
ability of  their  receiving  the  approbation  of  the  Gen- 
eral Convention.  Under  these  circumstances,  a  discus- 
sion of  them  would  be  superfluous.     Although,  at  the 


284  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

last  General  Convention,  I  voted  in  favor  of  submitting 
these  alterations  to  the  consideration  of  the  Church, 
it  was  partly  in  deference  to  the  opinions  of  others, 
and  on  the  intimation  that  such  a  measure  would 
tend  to  promote  harmony  in  the  Church,  and  uniform- 
ity in  the  ministrations  of  the  clergy.  For  myself,  I 
desire  to  see  no  further  attempts  made  for  changes  in 
the  Liturgy,  and  I  believe  this  to  be  the  general  senti- 
ment of  this  Diocese.  I  might,  indeed,  fancy  myself 
able  to  make  improvements  in  it,  if  it  were  left  to 
my  discretion.  Many  others  would  probably  enter 
on  such  a  work  with  greater  confidence  than  myself. 
But  I  am  persuaded  that  there  is  no  part  of  the 
Liturgy  but  has  become  endeared  to  so  many  pious 
people,  that  nothing  could  be  altered  or  expunged 
without  doing  great  violence  to  feelings  which  every 
ingenuous  mind  should  respect.  I  rejoice  in  the 
decided  expression  of  opinion  which  has  been  evinced 
in  regard  to  the  proposed  alterations,  and  consider  it 
as  more  auspicious  to  the  integrity  of  the  Liturgy, 
than  any  enactments  of  the  General  Convention  which 
could  possibly  be  devised." 

He  was  right  in  his  opinion  of  the  general  feeling 
of  the  Diocese,  for  the  same  Convention,  to  which  he 
spoke  these  cautions,  expressed  its  sense  of  the  pro- 
posed alterations  by  unanimously  rejecting  them. 
The  clergy  of  Connecticut,  some  years  before,  had 
agreed  among  themselves  to  a  use  of  the  Ante-com- 
munion service  every  Sunday,  and  they  did  not  wish 
any  modification  or  new  construction  of  the  rubric 
on  this  point.  In  dioceses,  too,  where  the  greatest 
liberties  had  been  taken  with  the  Liturgy,  opposition 
was  raised  to  the  changes  —  and  when  the  General 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  285 

Convention  assembled  at  Philadelphia  in  August, 
1829,  a  resolution  was  adopted,  offered  by  Bishop 
Hobart  himself,  to  the  eifect  that,  "under  existing 
circumstances,"  it  is  inexpedient  to  approve  of  the 
propositions,  "and  they  are,  therefore,  hereby  dis- 
missed from  the  consideration  of  the  Convention." 

Bishop  Brownell  preached  the  sermon  at  this  meet- 
ing in  Philadelphia.  His  subject  was  "Christian  Zeal," 
and  in  the  treatment  of  it,  he  referred  to  the  work  of 
the  "  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society,"  con- 
sidering its  prosperity  as  inseparably  connected  with 
the  prosperity  of  the  Church,  and  the  piety  of  her 
members.  A  vast  territory  of  our  Union,  spreading 
to  the  West  and  to  the  South,  was  not  then  under 
the  jurisdiction  of  any  Protestant  bishop,  and  the 
Directors  of  the  Society  requested  him  to  visit  it,  and 
"to  perform  such  Episcopal  offices  as  might  be  de- 
sired, to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  missions 
established  by  the  Board,  and  to  take  a  general  survey 
of  the  country,  for  the  purpose  of  designating  such 
other  missionary  stations  as  might  be  usefully  estab- 
lished." He  was  the  youngest  of  the  American  prel- 
ates, and  the  best  situated,  it  was  thought,  to  under- 
take a  journey  which  must  separate  him  from  his 
Diocese  for  many  months,  and  involve  him  in  the 
perils  of  a  traveller  by  sea  and  by  land.  He  left  Hart- 
ford on  the  5th  of  November,  1829,  being  escorted  to 
the  steamboat  by  the  officers  and  students  of  the 
College,  whom  he  bade  an  affectionate  adieu,  and  at 
New  York  he  was  joined  by  the  Rev.  William  Rich- 
mond, his  faithful  companion  on  the  whole  visita- 
tion. 

The  general  direction  of  their  tour  was  from  Phila- 


286  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

delphia  to  Pittsburgh,  and  thence  down  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  rivers,  to  New  Orleans,  —  the  latter  city 
being  the  utmost  point  of  their  destination.  Wel- 
comed wherever  they  passed,  and  taking  advantage 
of  all  opportunities  to  make  known  the  objects  of 
their  mission,  they  succeeded  in  reviving  an  interest 
for  the  services  of  the  Church,  where  the  people  had 
become  discouraged,  and  in  facilitating  the  organiza- 
tion and  support  of  new  parishes.  The  Bishop  exer- 
cised his  Episcopal  functions  in  Kentucky,  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Alabama,  and,  besides  consecrating  six 
churches,  admitting  one  candidate  to  the  priesthood, 
and  confirming  one  hundred  and  forty-two  persons, 
he  preached,  or  assisted  at  divine  service  seventy- 
four  times,  administered  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  on  several  occasions,  and  baptized  twenty-two 
children  and  twelve  adults.  In  the  course  of  his  visit 
to  Louisiana  and  Alabama,  he  presided  at  conventions 
held  for  the  regular  organization  of  the  Church  in 
those  States.  Speaking,  in  his  report  to  the  Directors, 
of  the  future  character  and  aspect  of  the  country 
through  which  he  had  travelled,  he  said :  — 

"The  great  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  is  so 
interesting  to  the  statesman  and  the  philosopher,  has 
not  failed  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  Board  I 
address,  to  its  spiritual  wants.  This  immense  region, 
extending  from  the  Alleghany  ridges  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Gulf  of  Mex- 
ico, was,  a  few  years  since,  but  a  vast  wilderness,  in- 
habited by  wild  beasts  and  a  few  tribes  of  wandering 
savages.  At  the  present  day,  it  comprises  a  vast 
empire,  and  contains  nearly  five  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants.    In  twenty  years   to    come,  it  will  probably 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  287 

contain  twelve  millions  of  souls,  which  will  then  be  a 
majority  of  the  whole  population  of  the  Union. 

"  There  is  a  grandeur  and  solemnity  in  this  march 
of  population,  which  cannot  fail  to  arrest  our  atten- 
tion, and  dispose  us  to  reflect  on  its  results.  What  is 
to  be  the  religious,  the  moral,  and  the  intellectual 
state  of  these  increasing  millions  ?  Who,  that  regards 
their  temporal  welfare,  would  not  wish  to  see  them 
blessed  with  the  religion  and  the  ministrations  of  the 
Gospel  ?  But,  from  the  manner  in  which  this  country 
was  settled,  it  is  unreasonable  to  expect  that  compe- 
tent provision  should  yet  be  made  for  the  support  of 
literary  and  religious  institutions.  The  emigrants  did 
not  take  with  them  their  pastors  and  their  school- 
masters, like  the  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England. 
And,  though  their  enterprise  and  industry  have  made 
the  wilderness  to  bud  and  blossom  as  the  rose,  there 
have  not  been  the  same  inducements,  nor  the  same 
opportunities  for  religious  culture." 

On  returning  homeward  "  through  Alabama,  the 
Creek  Nation,  and  the  Atlantic  States,"  Bishop 
Brownell  paid  a  friendly  visit  to  his  brother  in  the 
episcopate  at  Raleigh,1  North  Carolina.  He  at  length 
reached  his  home  in  Hartford  on  the  14th  of  March, 

I  "  Here  we  remained  a  day,  for  the  purpose  of  rest,  and  to  see  the 
lit.  Rev.  Bp.  Ravenscroft,  who,  we  had  learned,  was  dangerously  ill.  We 
found  the  Bishop  in  a  very  feeble  and  emaciated  state,  affording  scarcely  a 
hope  of  his  recovery,  and  awaiting  the  time  of  his  departure  with  the  most 
perfect  resignation  and  composure.  He  had  caused  a  door  to  be  cut  in 
the  floor  of  the  chancel  of  the  church  and  his  grave  to  be  dug  there,  and 
had  caused  a  plain  pine  coffin  to  be  made  to  contain  his  body."  —  Bp. 
Brownell's  MS,  Notes. 

On  the  5th  of  March,  1830,  ten  days  after  the  visit  of  his  brother,  Bp. 
Ravenscroft  entered  into  his  rest,  "  without  a  struggle  or  distorted  feature," 
at  the  age  of  nearly  fifty-eight  years. 


288  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

having  been  engaged  in  missionary  services  for  the 
Church  four  months,  accomplishing  a  tour  through 
the  West  and  South  of  about  six  thousand  miles,  and 
rivalling  in  extent  the  far-famed  visitation  of  the  la- 
mented Heber  in  India.  It  is  worth  while  to  cite, 
from  his  own  note-book,  the  words  in  which  he 
records  his  gratitude  :  — 

"  I  have  been  graciously  preserved  from  every 
danger  to  which  I  may  have  been  exposed.  Nothing 
has  occurred  to  mar  the  satisfaction  of  my  journey, 
or  to  frustrate  the  benefits  to  be  expected  from  it, 
and  I  have  been  permitted  to  join  my  family  and 
friends  again,  under  circumstances  of  the  richest 
mercy.  May  I  be  suitably  grateful  for  these  unmer- 
ited favors,  and  may  the  great  Head  of  the  Church 
pour  forth  abundant  blessings  on  my  unworthy  la- 
bors." 

The  spiritual  destitution  seen  on  this  visitation,  im- 
pressed the  beholder  with  the  necessity  of  an  increase 
in  the  number  of  the  clergy.  The  growth  of  the 
Church  was  greater  than  the  supply  of  faithful  labor- 
ers, and  duly  qualified  missionaries  could  not  be  ob- 
tained, to  meet  the  wants  of  the  West  and  the  South, 
so  long  as  the  older  parishes  in  the  Eastern  and 
Atlantic  States  claimed  all  the  active  men  in  Holy 
Orders.  The  complete  list  of  the  clergy  at  that 
time  in  the  country,  as  shown  by  the  Journal  of  the 
General  Convention,  numbered  only  five  hundred  and 
seven.  Bishop  Brownell,  therefore,  once  more  invited 
attention  to  a  subject,  which  he  had  frequently 
placed  before  the  Convention  of  his  Diocese.  "  It  is 
obvious,"  said  he  in  1830,  "that  the  principal  efforts 
of  Episcopalians  should  be  directed  to  the  education 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  289 

of  young  men  for  the  sacred  ministry."  Nothing  but 
a  strong  sense  of  religious  duty  would  lead  any  to 
devote  themselves  to  a  calling  which,  in  this  land, 
offers  so  few  worldly  inducements,  but  there  were 
young  men  whose  piety  inclined  them  to  enter  the 
ministry,  and  whose  talents  qualified  them  to  adorn 
it,  but  who  had  not  the  pecuniary  means  of  obtaining 
a  suitable  education  ;  and  such  must  be  sought  out 
and  assisted. 

It  was  to  create  a  feeder  for  the  College,  and,  in 
some  measure,  a  nursery  to  the  ministry,  that  the 
churchmen  of  Hartford  established  an  academy  in 
that  city,  and  induced  the  Rev.  Reuben  Sherwood  to 
relinquish  his  pleasant  parish  in  Norwalk,  and  accept 
the  charge  of  it,  Easter,  1830.  Whether  he  sighed 
again  for  the  full  pastoral  work,  or  felt  disappoint- 
ment at  the  prospects  of  the  Academy,  he  ceased  his 
connection  with  it  at  the  end  of  a  year,  and  removed 
from  the  Diocese,  and  the  buildings,  after  some  fruit- 
less attempts  to  accomplish  the  original  design,  passed 
into  other  hands,  and  were  used  for  other  purposes. 

Because  it  speaks  of  an  evil,  partly  springing  from 
the  scarcity  of  clergymen,  and  yet  directly  connected 
with  the  misjudgments  of  the  people,  this  chapter 
will  be  closed  with  an  extract  from  Bishop  Brownell's 
address  in  1831:  — 

"The  Convention  will  not  fail  to  notice  the  nu- 
merous changes  in  the  location  of  the  clergy,  reported 
from  year  to  year.  This  is  not  peculiar  to  Con- 
necticut, but  is  a  common  complaint  in  almost  every 
Diocese.  It  is  occasioned,  in  a  considerable  degree, 
by  the  inadequate  number  of  the  clergy.  Vacant 
parishes  will  not  fail  to  make  overtures  to  settled 

VOL.  II.  19 


290  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

clergymen,  when  no  others  are  to  be  obtained.  These 
importunities,  together  with  prospects  of  better  sup- 
port, or  of  more  extensive  usefulness,  must  lead  to 
frequent  changes.  Another  cause,  of  considerable  in- 
fluence in  this  Diocese,  will  be  found  in  the  condition 
of  our  parishes.  Many  of  these  are  yet  in  so  feeble 
a  state,  that  two  or  three  of  them  are  obliged  to  unite 
for  the  support  of  a  clergyman.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, they  will  generally  be  averse  to  the  formation 
of  permanent  arrangements,  in  the  hope  that  each 
will  be  able  to  secure  the  exclusive  services  of  a 
clergyman  at  no  distant  period.  But  there  is  still 
another  cause  for  these  frequent  changes,  for  which 
no  justification  can  be  urged.  I  allude  to  that  love 
of  novelty,  and  that  admiration  of  mere  popular 
preaching,  which,  I  fear,  is  too  much  a  characteristic 
of  the  present  times.  It  is  not  thought  sufficient 
that  the  minister  is  sensible,  discreet,  and  pious ;  that 
he  visits  the  sick  and  the  afflicted,  and  discharges  all 
his  pastoral  duties  with  fidelity.  He  must,  moreover, 
be  an  orator,  attract  the  admiration  of  the  multi- 
tude, and  draw  crowds  to  hear  him  preach.  A  good 
elocution  is  certainly  a  very  desirable  qualification 
in  a  public  speaker,  but  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
splendid  displays  of  eloquence  contribute  greatly  to 
Christian  edification.  It  sometimes  happens  that 
men's  minds  are  so  engrossed  by  their  admiration  of 
the  orator,  that  they  think  little  of  any  practical 
application  of  the  truths  which  he  delivers.  But 
what  is  called  popular  preaching,  is  too  often  but 
frothy  declamation,  set  off  by  some  of  the  graces  of 
delivery.  Such  popularity  is  of  short  continuance. 
It  ceases  as  soon  as  the  novelty  is  past,  and  the  un- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  291 

fortunate  parish  that  relies  on  it,  will  be  grievously 
disappointed.  This  eagerness  for  popular  preaching 
is  especially  the  propensity  of  the  young,  whose 
ardent  feelings  expose  them  to  the  influence  of  showy 
and  imposing  qualities.  I  have  known  more  than 
one  pastoral  connection  broken  up,  where  the  clergy- 
man possessed  undoubted  talents  and  piety,  and  all 
those  substantial  qualifications  which  go  to  form  the 
character  of  the  faithful  and  useful  pastor,  but  was 
thought  deficient  in  a  popular  elocution.  The  tem- 
poral condition  of  the  parish  did  not  prosper  so 
remarkably  as  some  of  its  sanguine  members  could 
desire  —  for  though  men  may  plant  and  cultivate,  it 
is  for  God  to  give  the  increase,  and  he  does  this  in 
his  own  good  time.  Reports  are  circulated  of  the 
ephemeral  growth  of  some  neighboring  parish,  under 
the  auspices  of  a  popular  preacher,  and  it  is  fondly 
imagined  that  mere  popular  preaching  will  produce 
the  same  effects  in  every  parish,  and  that  these 
effects  will  be  permanent.  The  ardent  and  restless 
members  of  the  parish  become  uneasy.  Dissatisfac- 
tion and  complaints  increase,  till  the  clergyman  finally 
deems  it  expedient  to  relinquish  his  station,  and  seek 
for  service  in  some  other  part  of  his  Master's  vine- 
yard." 


292  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

RETIREMENT  OF  THE  BISHOP  FROM  THE  PRESIDENCY  OF  THE  COL- 
LEGE; CHARGE  TO  THE  CLERGY;  AND  GENERAL  MISSIONARY 
SOCIETY  OF  THE  CHURCH. 

A.  D.   1831-1835. 

The  Diocese  became  somewhat  restless  under  the 
partial  supervision  of  the  Bishop,  and  adopted  meas- 
ures, in  1831,  to  separate  him  from  the  presidency 
of  the  College.  The  combined  duties  of  the  two 
offices  were  too  much  for  one  man  to  discharge  well, 
and  there  was  a  feeling  in  some  quarters  that  each 
would  suffer,  if  they  continued  to  be  united  in  the 
same  person.  The  College  was  the  favorite  institu- 
tion of  the  Bishop,  not  less  as  a  nursery  of  learning 
than  of  the  ministry  of  the  Church,  and  around  it 
hung  his  affections  and  his  prayers.  The  movement 
to  withdraw  him  from  the  immediate  administration 
of  it  was  a  delicate  one,  and  the  Convention,  in 
making  it,  bore  grateful  testimony  to  the  important 
services  rendered  by  him  in  founding  it  and  advan- 
cing its  interests.  But,  in  the  same  resolution,  the 
earnest  hope  was  expressed  that,  while  so  many  par- 
ishes were  destitute  of  settled  ministers,  he  would 
devote  his  labors  exclusively  to  the  pastoral  care  of 
the  Diocese,  as  soon  as  a  suitable  gentleman  could  be 
provided  to  fill  the  presidency  of  the  institution,  and 
a  competent  support  secured  for  his  family. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  293 

He  met  the  request  of  the  Convention  without 
hesitation,  and  entirely  concurred  with  the  members 
in  regard  to  the  expediency  of  the  step  which  they 
asked  him  to  take.  The  question  that  now  rose 
before  them,  was,  What  salary  shall  be  paid  to  the 
Bishop  ?  and  a  committee  of  five  laymen  was  ap- 
pointed to  devise  and  report  a  plan  for  immediately 
increasing  it  to  eighteen  hundred  dollars.  This,  with 
the  amount  of  arrearages  due  to  him,  which  had  been 
accumulating  for  years,  constituted  a  sum  so  large, 
that  many  feared  it  would  not  be  raised.  The  poor 
parishes,  still  delinquent  in  the  matter  of  the  old 
assessments  of  1813,  were  again  stirred  up,  and  vig- 
orous efforts  made  to  increase  the  permanent  fund. 
But  they  were  far  from  being  successful,  and  the  next 
year  a  new  scheme  was  adopted,  in  the  shape  of  the 
following  preamble  and  resolution  :  — 

"Whereas,  at  the  last  Convention  of  this  Diocese, 
it  was  voted  to  grant  the  Bishop  an  annual  salary  of 
eighteen  hundred  dollars,  and  whereas,  the  funds  for 
the  support  of  the  Episcopate  yield  at  this  time  only 
about  thirteen  hundred  dollars,  therefore,  — 

Resolved,  that,  for  the  purpose  of  making  up  the 
deficiency,  the  Convention  earnestly  recommend  to 
the  several  parishes  in  the  Diocese,  to  raise  an  annual 
contribution  of  two  and  one-half  per  cent,  per  annum 
on  the  amount  paid  to  their  clergymen  respectively, 
and  to  remit  the  same  annually,  on  or  before  the 
first  day  of  August,  to  the  Treasurer  of  the  Bish- 
op's Fund,  until  the  interest  of  the  Bishop's  Fund 
shall  amount  to  the  sum  of  eighteen  hundred  dol- 
lars." 

And  the  members  of  that  Convention,  by  another 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

resolution,  "  individually  pledged  themselves  "  to  use 
due  diligence  to  further  the  object  thus  recommended. 

The  Bishop  resigned  the  presidency  of  the  College, 
in  the  course  of  a  few  months,  and  his  successor  was 
the  Rev.  N.  S.  Wheaton,  Rector  of  Christ  Church, 
Hartford.  His  "  Farewell  Address "  to  the  students 
on  the  occasion  of  his  retiring,  delivered  in  the  Col- 
lege Chapel,  December  16th,  1831,  opens  with  a  pas- 
sage rich  in  tender  historic  associations :  — 

"  The  time  is  at  hand  when  I  am  to  retire  from  the 
immediate  charge  of  this  institution.  It  is  an  event 
which  I  cannot  contemplate  without  some  emotion. 
Having  made  the  first  movements  for  the  establish- 
ment  of  the  College;  having  been  engaged,  with  great 
solicitude,  in  all  the  measures  for  procuring  its  char- 
ter, for  raising  the  funds  for  its  endowment ;  having 
presided  over  the  instruction  and  discipline  which  has 
been  dispensed  in  it,  from  its  origin  to  the  present 
time,  it  is  naturally  to  be  expected  that  my  feelings 
should  be  strongly  identified  with  its  interests  and  its 
prospects. 

"These  feelings  of  general  interest,  derive  peculiar 
force  from  the  acquaintances  I  have  formed,  and  the 
attachments  I  have  contracted  with  the  young  men 
who  have  passed  under  my  charge.  About  eighty 
youth  have  already  received  the  honors  of  the  insti- 
tution. They  have  carried  forth  into  the  world  a 
measure  of  talents  and  worth  of  which  its  friends  may 
well  be  proud." 

A  large  proportion  of  these  youth  entered  the 
sacred  ministry,  and  of  the  twenty  candidates  for 
Holy  Orders  named  by  the  Bishop  in  1832,  thirteen 
were   graduates   of  the  College   at  Hartford.     The 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  295 

number  increased  from  year  to  year,  and  the  Church 
in  Connecticut  and  other  Dioceses  received,  from  this 
source,  many  accessions  to  her  educated  clergy. 

Withdrawn  now  from  other  cares,  the  Bishop  de- 
voted himself  exclusively  to  Episcopal  duties,  and,  in 
1832,  stated  that  he  had  visited,  since  the  last  Con- 
vention, sixty-six  parishes,  and  administered,  in  fifty- 
four  of  them,  the  rite  of  confirmation  to  twelve  hun- 
dred and  ten  persons.  In  the  same  period  he  conse- 
crated five  new  churches,  and  preached  one  hundred 
and  thirty-nine  times,  notwithstanding  a  "  severe 
lameness,"  from  which  he  suffered  during  the  early 
part  of  the  year.  Activity  in  the  overseer  of  the 
vineyard,  as  well  as  in  all  its  workers,  was  specially 
demanded.  Public  attention  was  now  very  much 
directed  to  the  subject  of  religion  in  Connecticut,  and 
Bishop  Brownell,  in  his  "  Second  Charge "  to  the 
clergy,  counselled  them  how  they  might  best  fulfill 
the  ministries  with  which  they  were  intrusted,  and 
have  a  due  regard  to  the  circumstances  of  the  times. 
In  the  heats  of  religious  excitement,  charity  is  often 
forgotten  and  misapprehensions  propagated,  and  hence 
no  cautions  are  more  proper  than  those  which  relate 
to  the  message  of  salvation  and  its  right  acceptance. 

"  As  members  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church," 
said  he,  "  we  believe  that  her  articles  and  formularies 
present  a  correct  view  of  the  true  doctrines  of  the 
Gospel.  That  they  do  so,  is  generally  conceded  by 
all  the  orthodox  denominations  of  Christians  in  our 
country.  But  we  are  sometimes  charged  with  hold- 
ing these  doctrines,  subject  to  some  mental  reserva- 
tion, and  of  really  entertaining  erroneous  and  defec- 
tive views  of  the  great  doctrines  of  the  Cross.     I  feel 


296  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

assured  that  this  charge,  as  applied  to  the  clergy  of 
our  Church  at  the  present  time,  is  utterly  errone- 
ous and  groundless.  In  retracing  the  history  of  the 
Church  of  England,  we  may,  perhaps,  find  a  period, 
when  the  discourses  of  her  divines  were  directed  too 
exclusively  to  the  enforcing  of  social  obligations, 
partly  because  they  considered  the  peculiar  doctrines 
of  the  gospel  to  be  generally  understood,  but  chiefly 
because  the  sectarian  preachers  were  accustomed  to 
dwell  exclusively  on  high  points  of  faith,  to  the  neg- 
lect, and  often  to  the  disparagement,  of  the  common 
duties  of  life.  It  may  be  that  the  imputation  in 
question  has  been  handed  down  from  these  times,  in 
the  traditions  of  dissenters,  and  transferred  from  our 
parent  Church  to  our  own.  But,  however  we  may 
feel  the  injustice  of  the  reproach,  it  will  ultimately 
be  put  to  shame,  if  we  continue  faithfully  to  preach 
the  great  doctrines  of  grace  and  salvation  through 
Jesus  Christ;  and  if,  when  we  are  called  upon  to 
inculcate  the  relative  duties  of  life,  we  enforce  them 
by  Christian  motives  and  Christian  sanctions. 

"  The  whole  economy  of  the  gospel  supposes  man- 
kind to  be,  by  nature,  in  a  state  of  sin  sid  guilt, 
subject  to  the  just  displeasure  of  God,  and  utterly 
incapable  of  extricating  themselves  from  misery  by 
their  own  unassisted  powers.  This  fact  constitutes 
the  basis  of  the  scheme  of  salvation  unfolded  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  the  foundation  of  all  our  efforts  to 
seek  the  mercy  of  God,  through  the  merits  of  the 
Redeemer.  It  should  be  faithfully  set  forth  and  en- 
forced by  every  minister  of  Christ." * 

This  whole  charge,  spoken  in  1832  to  a  Conven- 

1  Second  Charge,  pp.  6,  7. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  297 

tion  of  forty  clergymen  and  forty-three  lay  delegates, 
is  full  of  the  soundest  instruction,  and  many  extracts 
from  it  might  be  made  to  reflect  the  religious  history 
of  the  times.  One  more,  however,  of  considerable 
length,  is  as  much  as  the  limits  of  this  chapter  will 
allow. 

"The  times  in  which  we  live,  require  that  we  should 
take  especial  heed  to  ourselves  and  to  our  doctrine ; 
that  we  should  be  abundant  in  our  labors,  vigilant  in 
our  care  of  the  Church  of  God  committed  unto  us, 
and  faithful  and  zealous  in  the  performance  of  all 
our  duties.  Never  was  there  more  need  of  a  strict 
observance  of  the  precept  of  the  Saviour :  'Be  ye 
wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves.'  The  subject 
of  religion  occupies  an  unusual  share  of  the  public 
attention.  There  has  been  no  period  since  the 
Reformation,  when  such  zealous  exertions  have  been 
put  forth  for  its  advancement.  This  auspicious  char- 
acteristic of  the  times  has  been  gradually  developing 
itself  for  more  than  twenty  years,  and  as  the  era  was 
preceded  by  a  period  of  comparative  apathy,  the 
present  has,  not  inaptly,  been  called  a  season  of  revi- 
val. It  is  highly  important,  brethren,  that  we  partici- 
pate in  this  characteristic  of  the  age.  It  is,  therefore, 
incumbent  on  us,  not  only  to  take  peculiar  heed  to 
our  own  religious  state,  and  to  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  those  who  are  committed  to  our  charge,  but  we 
are  called  upon  to  take  an  active  part  in  the  common 
efforts  that  are  put  forth  to  extend  the  Redeemer's 
kingdom  through  the  world.  We  are  called  upon 
to  afford  our  aid  in  the  dissemination  of  religious 
knowledge,  and  in  sending  forth  the  gospel  of  salva- 
tion, with  its  ministry  and  ordinances,  not  only  to  the 


298  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

destitute  of  our  own  country,  but  to  the  benighted 
heathen  in  other  lands.  And  we  are  emphatically 
called  upon  to  contribute  our  aid  in  elevating  and 
sustaining  the  tone  of  religious  piety  in  the  com- 
munion to  which  we  belong,  according  to  that  un- 
erring standard  prescribed  in  the  Gospel. 

"  But,  brethren,  our  times  are  marked  by  other 
characteristics,  less  auspicious  to  the  cause  of  divine 
truth.  While  these  zealous  exertions  have  been  put 
forth  for  the  promotion  of  the  Christian  religion,  we 
cannot  fail  to  have  observed  that  this  holy  cause  is 
bitterly  assailed,  both  by  open  and  covert  enemies, 
and  that  it  is  sometimes  lamentably  injured  even  by 
its  professed  friends.  The  success  of  the  Redeemer's 
cause  seems  to  have  called  forth  the  most  active  and 
subtle  opposition  of  the  adversary.  Infidelity  has 
arisen  from  the  dust,  into  which  it  was  humbled  by 
the  events  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  once  more 
stalks  boldly  through  the  land.  The  plenary  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  divinity  and  atone- 
ment of  the  Saviour,  are  now  denied  by  those  who 
bear  the  Christian  name.  And  even  among  those 
who  imagine  themselves  the  best  friends  of  religion, 
its  doctrines  are  sometimes  so  distorted,  the  modes 
of  advancing  it  are  sometimes  so  injudicious  and 
extravagant,  and  the  course  of  duty  it  prescribes  is 
sometimes  so  revoltingly  misrepresented,  that  one  is 
at  a  loss  to  determine  whether  the  sacred  cause  is 
most  injured  by  its  professed  friends,  or  its  avowed 
enemies.  The  misrepresentations  and  perversions  of 
infidel  writers  have,  indeed,  done  incalculable  mis- 
chief to  the  cause  of  Christianity ;  all  the  powers  of 
sophistry,  sarcasm,  and  ridicule,  have  been  exhausted 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  299 

by  them,  and  appeals  have  constantly  been  made  to 
the  worst  passions  and  prejudices  of  human  nature; 
yet  it  is  still  problematical  whether  it  has  not  been 
as  deeply  injured  by  the  erroneous  views  and  mis- 
taken efforts  of  those  who  have  professed  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  The  history  of  the  Church  is  full  of 
instructive  lessons  on  this  subject.  During  the 
period  emphatically  designated  the  Dark  Ages,  the 
errors  and  the  absurdities  of  the  Romish  faith  became 
the  occasion  of  a  wide  spread  infidelity  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  the  grossest  hypocrisy  and  superstition 
on  the  other.  The  glorious  event  of  the  Reforma- 
tion was  soon  marred  by  the  metaphysical  subtleties 
intermixed  with  the  Christian  faith,  in  Geneva,  Ger- 
many, and  Scotland.  And  these  perversions  have 
probably  been  the  occasion,  in  later  times,  of  more 
pernicious  and  fatal  errors,  which  sap  the  very  founda- 
tion of  the  Christian  faith.  There  is  too  much  reason 
to  fear  that  the  same  theological  views  have  led  to 
the  same  dangerous  errors,  in  some  sections  of  our 
country.  In  the  south  of  Europe,  where  the  abuses 
of  the  Romish  Church  still  maintain  their  sway,  a 
secret  infidelity  is  cherished  by  large  portions  of  the 
community.  A  distinguished  Congregational  divine 
has  expressed  the  opinion  that,  <In  England,  the  ex- 
travagances of  the  pious,  in  the  time  of  Cromwell, 
threw  back  the  cause  of  vital  piety  for  two  centuries.' 
And  he  warns  the  churches  of  his  communion,  in 
New  England,  and  certain  portions  of  the  West, 
against  the  consequences  to  be  apprehended  from 
the  encouragement  of  similar  excesses." 1 

A  scheme   to  convert  the  Episcopal  Academy  at 

1  Pages  14,  15. 


300  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Cheshire  into  a  self-supporting  school,  proposed  at 
the  previous  Annual  Convention,  and  intrusted  to  a 
committee,  was  rejected  in  1832,  as  "  inexpedient,  if 
not  impracticable."  Since  the  removal  of  Mr.  Cruse 
from  the  Diocese,  the  office  of  Principal  had  been 
vacant,  but  it  was  decided  to  fill  it  at  this  time,  and, 
before  the  ballot  was  taken,  a  resolution  was  adopted, 
requesting  the  Trustees  of  the  Academy,  in  fixing  the 
salary  and  duties  of  the  Principal,  to  take  into  con- 
sideration "  the  expediency  of  making  some  provision 
whereby  a  portion,  or  the  whole  of  the  students, 
might  contribute  something  towards  their  own  ex- 
penses, by  the  performance  of  suitable  manual  labor." 
The  Rev.  Bethel  Judd,  D.  D.,1  who  was  the  originator 
of  the  self-supporting  scheme,  was  chosen  Principal. 
The  election  relieved  the  parish  at  New  London  of 
a  venerable  rector,  whose  services  had  ceased  to  be 
acceptable  to  a  majority  of  the  members,  but  it 
carried  no  vigor  or  prosperity  to  the  church  and 
institution  in  Cheshire.  From  1828  to  1835,  but  two 
meetings  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  were  held,  and 
one  only  during  the  administration  of  Dr.  Judd,  and 
that  to  fix  his  salary  and  determine  the  conditions  of 
his  appointment.  He  tried  the  visionary  project  of 
providing  for  the  support  of  necessitous  young  men, 
by  adopting  in  part  the  manual  labor  system,  but  he 
failed  to  create  any  interest  in  his  work,  and,  with  the 
infirmities  of  age  upon  him,  he  could  do  little  for  the 
parish  of  which  he  was  also  the  Rector.    Not  meeting, 

1  The  College  at  Hartford,  in  1831,  conferred  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  upon  Rev.  Daniel  Burhans,  Rev.  Harry  Croswell,  and  Rev. 
Bethel  Judd.  They  were  the  first  American  clergymen  upon  whom  the 
corporation  conferred  this  honor,  but  since  that  date,  many  of  our  bishops 
and  presbyters  have  received  it  from  the  same  source. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  301 

therefore,  with  the  success  that  he  anticipated,  Dr. 
Judd  resigned  to  the  Convention  his  office  of  Princi- 
pal, in  October,  1835,  and  afterwards  removed  from  the 
Diocese.  He  had  not,  for  some  months  previous  to 
this,  resided  in  Cheshire,  or  interested  himself  in  the 
concerns  of  the  parish  or  the  management  of  the  in- 
stitution. The  building,  which  had  gone  into  decay, 
was  then  extensively  repaired  and  remodelled,  and  a 
whole  year  was  suffered  to  elapse,  before  the  right 
man  could  be  procured  to  fill  the  vacant  post. 

For  half  a  century  the  Annual  Convention  had 
assembled  in  different  parishes,  according  to  the  de- 
termination of  the  Bishop,  on  the  first  Wednesday  of 
June,  but,  in  1831,  a  proposition  was  made  to  substi- 
tute for  this  date,  the  second  Tuesday  of  October,  and, 
the  next  year,  the  amendment  was  approved  by  the 
concurrent  vote  of  both  orders,  and  became  a  part  of 
the  Constitution  of  the  Church  in  the  Diocese.  It 
carried  the  meeting  to  a  season,  when  it  was  thought 
a  better  attendance  of  lay  delegates  might  be  secured, 
especially  from  parishes  in  the  agricultural  districts. 
The  first  Convention  to  be  held  under  the  amended 
Constitution,  was  appointed  at  Chatham,  now  Port- 
land, but  no  quorum  assembled,  for  it  appeared  to  be 
the  general  impression  that  all  necessary  business 
had  been  transacted  at  the  previous  meeting  in  June. 
The  next  year,  1833,  it  was  appointed  at  Norwich,  and 
as  railroads  had  not  yet  taken  the  place  of  stages  and 
private  carriages,  it  was  unfortunate,  for  testing  the 
expediency  of  the  change,  that  a  place  should  have 
been  selected  so  much  out  of  the  way,  and  in  a  part 
of  the  State  where  there  were  but  few  parishes. 

The  clergy  and  laity  met  in  Christ  Church,  in  that 


302  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

city,  at  the  time  appointed,  and  after  morning  prayer 
and  a  sermon  from  President  Wheaton,  the  roll  was 
called,  and  twenty-one  clergymen  answered  to  their 
names,  and  then  an  adjournment  followed  till  the 
afternoon.  Upon  reassembling,  only  seventeen  lay 
delegates  were  found  to  be  present,  —  not  enough  for 
the  transaction  of  business,  the  Constitution  requir- 
ing twenty  of  this  order.  The  parochial  reports, 
however,  were  read,  and  an  informal  discussion  was 
had  upon  a  communication  from  the  Secretary  of  the 
General  Convention,  relative  to  certain  alterations  in 
the  rubrics,  but  the  evening  was  very  stormy,  and  an 
adjournment  took  place  till  the  next  day.  Wednesday 
came,  and  there  was  still  no  quorum.  Another  public 
service  was  held  at  eleven  o'clock,  and  a  sermon 
preached  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Croswell.  In  the  afternoon, 
notwithstanding  the  nearest  unrepresented  parishes 
had  been  specially  requested  to  send  in  delegates, 
two  were  yet  wanting  to  enable  the  Convention  to 
organize,  —  a  number  which  would  have  been  sup- 
plied but  for  a  melancholy  accident  that  occurred 
early  that  morning,  and  destroyed  the  lives  of  several 
persons,  and  among  them  two  laymen,  who  were  on 
their  way  from  a  remote  section  of  the  State  to 
attend  the  Convention.1  Numerous  meetings  of  the 
clergy  were  held,  and  the  occasion  was  by  no  means 
without  interest  and   profit,  but  the  business  of  the 

1  The  steamboat  New  England,  on  her  passage  from  New  York  to  Hart- 
ford, having  on  board  seventy-one  persons,  burst  both  her  boilers  near 
Essex,  about  3  o'clock  Wednesday  morning,  and  eight  persons  were  imme- 
diately killed,  and  thirteen  seriously  injured.  Among  the  fatally  injured 
were  Mr.  John  M.  Heron  and  Dr.  Samuel  B.  Whiting,  lay  delegates 
from  Redding,  and  they  were  within  a  mile  of  their  landing-place  at  the 
time  of  the  accident. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  303 

Diocese  was  necessarily  postponed,  and  the  members 
finally  adjourned,  sorrowing  over  the  intelligence 
which  had  reached  them  of  the  terrible  disaster  on 
the  Connecticut  River. 

Bishop  Brownell  left  New  York,  in  a  ship  for  New 
Orleans,  November  18th,  1834,  with  a  view  to  his 
wife's  health,  and  at  the  request  of  the  vestry  of  Christ 
Church  in  that  city.  He  was  absent  during  the  win- 
ter and  a  part  of  the  spring,  and  spent  most  of  the 
time  in  New  Orleans,  collecting  together  the  scattered 
congregation  of  Episcopalians,  and  encouraging  them 
to  erect  a  new  church  and  elect  a  permanent  rector. 
Alabama  had  been  placed  under  his  provisional 
charge,  and  he  was  present  at  the  Annual  Conven- 
tion, held  at  Tuscaloosa  on  the  19th  of  January, 
preached  the  sermon,  and  presided  over  its  delibera- 
tions. He  was  also  present  at  a  special  Convention 
of  the  Diocese  of  Mississippi,  held  at  Natchez  on  the 
-3d  of  February,  and  took  great  interest  in  the  steps 
which  led  to  the  formation  of  the  Southwestern  Dio- 
cese.1 

The  General  Convention,  which  met  at  Philadelphia 
in  1835,  took  a  long  step  forward  in  the  work  of 
Domestic  and  Foreign  Missions.     It  was  the  last  Con- 

1  This  was  composed  of  the  "  Dioceses  of  Mississippi  and  Alabama,  and 
the  churches  in  the  State  of  Louisiana,"  organized  under  a  special  Canon 
of  the  General  Convention  of  1832.  Before  Bishop  Brownell  left  for 
the  North,  the  Rev.  Francis  L.  Hawks,  D.D.,  had  been  elected  Bishop 
of  the  Southwestern  Diocese,  and  rector  of  the  parish  in  New  Orleans. 
But  he  declined  the  offices  to  which  he  was  thus  chosen,  and  "other  un- 
toward events  "  happening,  the  organization  failed,  and  was  soon  broken 
up. 

Bishop  Brownell,  during  this  visit  to  the  South,  confirmed  sixty-two 
persons  —  thirty-eight  in  New  Orleans,  seventeen  in  Mobile,  and  seven 
in  Tuscaloosa,  where  he  also  consecrated  the  church. 


304  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

vention  at  which  Bishop  White  presided,  for  he  died 
the  ensuing  year;  and,  having  witnessed  the  first 
efforts  of  the  Church,  in  1792,  to  "  support  mis- 
sionaries to  preach  the  Gospel  on  the  frontiers,"  and 
the  establishment,  in  1820,  of  a  voluntary  society, 
composed  of  contributors  to  its  funds,  that  the  work 
might  be  done  more  effectively,  he  now  saw,  in  the 
progress  of  Christian  zeal,  the  primitive  ground  taken, 
that  the  Church,  as  such,  is  our  great  Missionary 
Society,  and  that  every  person  who  is  admitted  within 
her  pale  by  baptism,  becomes  by  that  act  a  member 
of  the  Missionary  Society  in  the  highest  sense  of  the 
term.  As  the  organ  and  representative  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica, the  General  Convention  of  1835  openly,  in  the 
face  of  all  Christendom,  recognized  this  principle,  and 
assumed  the  corresponding  duties.  And  thus  our 
Church  publicly  pledged  herself  henceforth  to  fulfil, 
according  to  her  ability,  the  divine  injunctions  of  the 
Saviour,  —  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature  ;  go,  make  disciples  of  all 
nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  teaching 
them  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  com- 
manded you ;  and,  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world." 

The  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  had 
then  sixteen  bishops  and  seven  hundred  and  sixty- 
one  clergymen.  Of  the  latter,  eighty  were  in  Con- 
necticut, and  this  Diocese,  next  to  New  York,  which 
was  not  yet  divided,  had  the  largest  clerical  list  in 
the  country.  The  world  was  the  one  field  which  the 
General  Missionary  Society,  under  its  new  organiza- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  305 

tion,  had  in  view,  —  the  terms  domestic  and  foreign, 
being  only  designations  of  the  locality  of  its  opera- 
tions. While  the  missionary  spirit  of  Connecticut 
would  be  confined  within  no  narrower  limits  than 
those  thus  pointed  out,  the  state  of  her  parishes,  and 
the  religious  aspect  of  many  populous  towns,  seemed 
to  plead  for  paramount  sympathy  and  more  generous 
contributions.  Bishop  Brownell,  in  his  annual  address 
to  the  Convention  of  1835,  referring  to  these  things, 
and  to  the  want  of  a  proper  interest  in  the  operations 
of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowl- 
edge, called  upon  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  "  to  come 
up  to  the  work  with  a  spirit  adequate  to  the  urgency 
of  the  times." 

"  It  is  certain,"  said  he,  "  that  there  is  nothing  in 
this  department  of  missionary  operations,  which  ad- 
dresses itself  strongly  to  the  imagination.  It  is  no 
region  of  romance.  The  results  of  our  labor  will  not 
be  magnified  by  distance,  nor  derive  interest  from 
associations  with  strange  manners  and  a  foreign  lan- 
guage, yet  they  may  not  be  less  salutary  to  the  souls 
of  men,  nor  productive  of  less  substantial  benefit  to 
the  cause  of  Christ.  It  is  not  sufficiently  considered, 
that  in  building  up  the  Church  in  this  Diocese,  we 
are  subserving  the  general  cause  of  missions  as  effect- 
ually, though  not  directly,  as  though  we  were  labor- 
ing among  our  scattered  and  destitute  brethren  of  the 
West,  or  among  the  heathen  of  foreign  lands.  The 
whole  Church  of  Connecticut  has  long  been,  in  point 
of  fact,  a  Missionary  Church.  Her  lay  emigrants,  who 
have  removed  to  adjacent  States,  and  to  the  remoter 
West,  have  not  failed  to  carry  with  them  their  love 
for  the  Church,  and  have  ever  been  the  first  to  rear 

VOL.  II.  20 


306  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

up  her  institutions  in  the  land  of  their  adoption.  She 
has,  moreover,  been  a  fruitful  nursery  of  clergymen/ 
and  there  is  hardly  a  State  in  the  Union  where  we 
may  not  find  some  of  her  sons  ministering  at  the 
altar.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  then,  that  in  extend- 
ing the  Church  within  our  own  borders,  we  are,  at 
the  same  time,  advancing  the  general  interest  of  mis- 
sions. Indeed,  I  may  truly  add,  that  with  us  every 
faithful  parish  minister  is,  in  fact,  a  laborer  in  the 
missionary  cause. 

"  But  it  is  not  through  the  medium  of  emigrations 
alone,  that  our  building  up  the  Church  at  home  con- 
tributes to  promote  its  advancement  abroad.  By 
multiplying  the  number  of  our  congregations,  and 
by  increasing  their  strength,  we  not  only  augment 
the  number  of  those  who  will  spread  abroad  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  Church,  but  we  increase  our  own  direct 
ability  to  add  to  the  amount  of  her  missionary  funds. 
This  is  another  consideration  that  is  not  sufficiently 
borne  in  mind,  because  the  effect  is  not  so  immediate, 
direct,  and  obvious;  but  it  well  deserves  the  attention 
of  reflecting  and  judicious  churchmen. 

"  It  is  true,  the  field  of  missions  is  the  world.  But 
we  cannot  reach  the  whole  world  at  once.  We  must 
operate  in  the  fields  that  are  most  accessible  to  us, 
and  in  places  where  our  labors  will,  ultimately,  turn 
to  the  best  account.  By  extending  the  Church  in 
our  own  State,  and  in  our  own  country,  we  increase 
our  ability  to  carry  the  light  and  the  blessings  of  the 
gospel  to  the  heathen  nations.  We  may  grieve  at 
the  slowness  of  our  progress,  and  be  impatient  to 
leap  from  the  means  to  the  end.  But  both  should  be 
kept  in  view  by  the  discreet  Christian.     Next  to  the 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  307 

salvation  of  our  own  souls,  our  great  concern  should 
certainly  be  to  spread  abroad  the  knowledge  of  the 
gospel,  and  to  assist  in  building  up  the  Christian 
Church,  as  it  was  originally  founded  upon  the  Apos- 
tles and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief 
corner  stone.  Whenever  we  are  conscientiously  en- 
gaged in  this  work,  in  whatever  field  it  may  be,  we 
may  rest  assured  that  we  are  in  the  performance  of 
our  duty,  and  we  may  confidently  look  to  the  great 
Head  of  the  Church  for  His  blessing  on  our  labors." 

The  Diocesan  Convention  of  1835  was  thoroughly 
missionary  in  its  tone.  Besides  the  Bishop's  address, 
and  the  usual  sermon  in  behalf  of  the  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge,  the  discourse 
before  the  Convention  was  on  the  subject  of  Missions, 
and  each  parochial  clergyman,  by  a  specific  resolution 
of  that  body,  was  desired  to  take  the  earliest  oppor- 
tunity of  carrying  into  "  effectual  operation,"  in  such 
way  as  he  might  deem  expedient,  the  principle  pub- 
licly acknowledged  and  practically  adopted  by  the 
General  Council  of  the  Church.  The  fruits  of  this 
new  impulse  to  the  cause  of  missions  were  visible, 
the  next  year,  in  every  part  of  the  Diocese. 


308  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

USE  OF  THE  GENERAL  CONFESSION;  THIRD  CHARGE  OF  THE 
BISHOP;  ANOTHER  VISIT  TO  NEW  ORLEANS;  AND  MAINTEN- 
ANCE OF  THE  CLERGY. 

A.    D.    1835-1840. 

The  construction  of  the  rubric  admitted  of  a  doubt, 
whether  the  General  Confession  in  the  Daily  Morning 
and  Evening  Prayer  was  designed  to  be  the  joint  act 
of  minister  and  people.  Hence  a  practice  had  arisen, 
borrowed  from  the  usage  of  the  English  Church, 
whereby  the  minister  pronounced  each  sentence  of 
the  Confession  by  himself, — the  people  not  beginning 
until  he  had  finished  it,  and  then  concluding  the 
whole  with  the  word  "Amen,"  as  their  response,  in 
which  the  minister  did  not  unite.  The  attention  of 
the  House  of  Bishops  was  called  to  this  practice,  in 
1835,  by  the  other  branch  of  the  General  Convention, 
and  an  opinion  solicited  with  a  view  of  promoting  uni- 
formity in  the  performance  of  all  the  offices  of  public 
worship. 

The  Bishops  unanimously  concurred  in  an  opinion, 
which  was  thus  expressed :  "  A  regard  to  uniformity 
with  what  is  practiced  in  other  parts  of  the  Liturgy, 
and  also  to  the  avoiding;  of  a  needless  addition  to  the 
length  of  the  service,  and  to  its  most  decent  perform- 
ance, requires,  that  in  repeating  the  General  Confes- 
sion in  the  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer,  the  people 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  309 

should  unite  with  the  minister  in  saying  it  after  him, 
in  the  same  manner  as  is  usually  practiced  in  saying 
the  Creeds,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  the  Confession  in 
the  Communion  Service."  A  further  opinion  was 
given  that,  in  those  parts  of  the  Liturgy  in  which 
the  minister  and  people  are  to  unite  audibly,  "  as  in 
the  Confessions,  the  Creeds,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  the  Trisagion,  and  the  last  prayer 
for  Ash-Wednesday,"  the  word  "  Amen "  should  be 
printed  in  the  Roman  letters,  and  the  minister  unite 
with  the  people  in  saying  it,  and  wherever  it  is  the 
response  of  the  people  to  what  the  minister  alone 
says,  it  should  be  printed  in  italics.  A  declaration 
that  it  is  expedient  to  omit  the  Collect  and  Lord's 
Prayer,  before  the  sermon,  was  annexed  to  the  same 
opinion. 

These  proposed  changes  were  carried  into  effect  in 
most  of  the  parishes  of  Connecticut  on  the  afternoon 
of  the  third  Sunday  in  October,  1835,  and  they  were 
at  once  appreciated,  both  by  the  ministers  and  their 
congregations.  Since  that  date,  the  Diocese  has  been 
marked  by  great  uniformity  in  the  performance  of 
public  services,  and  no  serious  departures  from  the 
rubrics  have  been  noted. 

The  Annual  Convention  of  1836,  composed  of 
thirty-two  clergymen  and  forty-six  lay  delegates,  met 
in  Christ  Church,  Hartford,  and  the  Bishop  delivered 
his  "Third  Charge."  It  was  strongly  imbued  with 
the  missionary  spirit,  and  reiterated  much  that  he 
had  put  forth  on  former  occasions.  The  new  vigor 
produced  by  the  recent  action  of  the  General  Con- 
vention, seemed  to  invite  him  to  the  consideration  of 
this  subject,  and  the  kindred  subject  of  an  increase 


310  HISTORY    OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHUECH 

in  the  number  of  the  clergy.  He  felt,  with  others, 
that  our  communion  now,  unfettered  by  any  ties  of 
human  policy,  and  prospering  with  the  prosperity 
of  the  country,  was  well  situated  to  bear  the  tidings 
of  Redemption  into  "  waste  and  perishing  borders." 

"I  find  my  Church,"  said  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jarvis,  on 
his  return  to  the  United  States,  after  an  absence  in 
Europe  of  nearly  ten  years,  "once  the  feeble  offspring 
of  missionary  labor,  now,  in  her  turn,  extending  the 
blessings  of  the  Gospel  to  heathen  lands,  and  repay- 
ing to  another  member  of  Christ's  body,  a  portion  of 
that  aid  which  she  herself  formerly  received.  I  find 
my  country  advanced  in  prosperity  to  a  degree  unim- 
aginable and  inconceivable  by  any  who  have  not  seen 
it  with  their  own  eyes.  I  find  a  life,  and  activity, 
and  enterprise,  a  youthful  ardor  and  vigor,  arising 
from  the  freedom  of  our  institutions,  and  our  peculiar 
position,  which,  elsewhere,  it  would  be  in  vain  to  look 
for.  And  from  this  united  view  of  my  Church  and 
my  country,  I  am  constrained  to  ask,  who  are  better 
situated  than  ourselves  to  become  the  heralds  of  the 
Cross?  This  life,  and  activity,  and  enterprise,  and 
ardor,  and  vigor,  which  is  the  characteristic  of  our 
countrymen,  needs  only  to  be  directed  into  right 
channels.  In  proportion  as  a  lively  sense  of  the 
unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  is  diffused  through  our 
nation,  in  the  same  proportion  will  these  energies  be 
properly  and  successfully  directed.  In  proportion  as 
our  Church  is  extended  and  strengthened  in  our  own 
country,  will  the  share  be  increased  in  which  Chris- 
tian America  will  act  for  the  conversion  of  the 
world."1 

1  Sermon  before  the  Church  Scholarship  Society,  1835,  pp.  31,  32. 


IN    CONNECTICUT.  311 

But  the  great  want  of  the  Church,  in  order  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  the  times,  was  still  the  want 
of  more  ministers.  The  love  of  money,  and  the  love 
of  distinction,  were  absorbing  passions  that  cast  all 
the  gentler  occupations  of  life  into  obscurity  and 
neglect,  and  it  was  natural  that  young  men  of  afflu- 
ence, education,  and  intelligence,  should  be  tempted 
to  other  pursuits,  and  indisposed  to  undertake  the 
toils  and  self-denials  of  the  priestly  office. 

"Fortunately,"  said  Bishop  Brownell,  "for  the  purity 
of  the  gospel  ministry  in  our  country,  it  holds  out' 
few  pecuniary  allurements  to  induce  men  to  enter  on 
its  sacred  functions.  Though  it  requires  an  expen- 
sive education,  and  a  long  period  of  laborious  pre- 
paratory study,  the  pecuniary  compensation  of  a 
clergyman  is  barely  adequate  to  his  humble  support. 
The  mechanic,  who  learns  his  profession  at  little  cost, 
is  better  paid,  and  has  greater  opportunity  of  laying 
up  in  store  an  adequate  provision  for  his  family. 
There  is,  therefore,  no  pecuniary  inducement  to  call 
forth  a  supply  proportioned  to  the  demand.  But,  in 
this  case,  the  maxim  of  political  economy  must  be,  in 
fact,  reversed.  We  must  procure  a  supply,  in  order 
to  create  a  demand.  It  will  not  do  to  wait  till  the 
parish  is  organized,  the  church  built,  and  the  clergy- 
man's salary  provided.  In  the  ordinary  course  of 
affairs,  these  things  would  never  be  done.  The  pres- 
ence, the  zeal,  and  the  influence  of  the  clergyman, 
are  required  to  effect  these  arrangements.  The  first 
evangelists  were  not  instructed  to  wait  till  the  way 
should  be  thus  prepared  for  them,  and  they  called 
forth  to  enter  on  their  ministry." 

In  this  connection,  he  spoke  of  the  necessity  of 


312  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

training  and  educating  young  men  "for  the  altars 
of  our  Church  by  the  liberality  of  her  members,"  and 
in  seminaries  friendly  to  our  religious  principles. 
Then,  too,  there  were  other  auxiliary  means,  which 
he  would  not  have  overlooked  or  neglected  in  seek- 
ing to  promote  the  general  prosperity  of  the  Church. 

"  Christian  parents,"  said  he,  "  may  do  much  to- 
wards directing  the  inclinations  of  their  sons  to  the 
ministry  of  the  sanctuary.  They  can  dedicate  them 
to  God,  in  their  infancy,  and  rear  them  up  'in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.'  They  can  be 
instant  in  prayer  for  the  renovation  of  their  hearts, 
and  they  can  lead  their  minds  and  direct  their  studies 
to  this  holy  end.  Were  there  more  pious  Hannahs 
in  the  Church,  there  would  be  more  youthful  Samuels 
consecrated  to  the  service  of  the  temple.  The  father 
of  Hannibal  was  able  to  inspire  an  undying  hatred  to 
the  Romans,  when  he  was  only  nine  years  old.  Can- 
not the  Christian  father  be  equally  successful  in  filling 
the  heart  of  his  son  with  a  prevailing  love  for  the 
souls  of  men,  and  for  the  service  of  the  altar. 

"  The  ministers  of  Christ  may  do  much  towards 
filling  up  the  thin  and  scattered  ranks  of  their  order. 
They  can  seek,  through  their  Sunday-schools  and 
their  parishes,  for  youth  of  promising  talents,  to 
whom,  in  the  morning  of  their  days,  the  renewing 
influences  of  divine  grace  have  been  imparted.  They 
can  lay  before  them  the  destitutions  of  the  Church, 
and  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  world  ;  and,  if  they 
find  any  who  feel  themselves  moved  of  God  to  labor 
in  his  vineyard,  they  can  direct  their  studies,  and 
facilitate  their  preparation  for  the  work. 

"But,  above  all,  the  prayers  of  the  whole  Church 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  313 

should  be  put  forth  for  the  enlargement  of  her  bor- 
ders, for  the  increase  of  her  zeal,  and  for  the  multipli- 
cation of  her  ministers." 1 

In  November,  1836,  Bishop  Brownell  consented  to 
undertake  a  third  journey  to  New  Orleans.  On  the 
occasion  of  his  visit  to  that  city,  two  years  before,  he 
was  instrumental  in  collecting  together  the  scattered 
members  of  the  Episcopal  Church,  and  uniting  them 
in  an  effort  to  erect  a  new  house  of  worship.  The 
edifice  was  now  completed  and  ready  for  consecration, 
and,  as  there  was  not  an  Episcopal  clergyman  in  the 
whole  State  of  Louisiana,  he  was  strongly  urged  by 
the  vestry  of  the  parish  to  make  another  visit,  admin- 
ister confirmation,  and  consecrate  the  new  church, 
and  officiate  in  the  same  so  long  as  it  might  suit  his 
convenience.  He  was  absent  from  his  Diocese  five 
months,  during  which  time  he  visited  Mobile  and  con- 
firmed several  persons ;  and,  before  his  departure  for 
the  North,  the  parish  in  New  Orleans  had  extended 
an  invitation  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wheaton,  President  of 
the  College  at  Hartford,  to  become  its  rector,  and  his 
acceptance  had  been  received. 

Dr.  Wheaton  left  behind  him  many  marks  of  his  zeal 
and  activity,  and  his  exquisite  taste  was  visible  in  an 
improvement  of  the  grounds  about  the  College.  He 
was  indefatigable  in  soliciting  funds  for  its  benefit, 
and,  when  he  withdrew  from  its  charge,  he  had  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  system  of  judicious  endowments, 
which  his  own  private  benefactions,  subsequently  yet 
unostentatiously  bestowed,  helped  to  foster. 

Frequent  changes  in  the  presidency  are  always  to 
be  avoided,  because  always  injurious  to  the  prosperity 

1  Charge,  1836,  pp.  22,  23. 


314  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

of  a  college.  Care  should  be  taken  to  select  for  that 
office  men  who  are  well  fitted  to  its  responsibilities 
and  duties  by  experience  and  attainment,  and  then 
none  but  the  best  reasons  should  be  allowed  to  pro- 
duce a  dissolution  of  the  connection.  The  Trustees 
resolved  at  length  to  fill  the  vacancy,  occasioned  by 
the  resignation  of  Dr.  Wheaton,  with  one  who,  though 
he  had  gained  no  celebrity  in  the  Church,  had  yet 
proved  himself  eminently  successful  in  one  depart- 
ment of  collegiate  instruction.  Thus  they  chose 
their  own  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Phil- 
osophy, the  Rev.  Silas  Totten,  D.  D. 

The  constitution  of  the  Episcopal  Academy  of  Con- 
necticut, at  the  instance  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
was  carefully  revised  by  the  Convention  of  1836,  and 
among  the  changes  introduced,  was  one  giving  to  the 
corporation  the  power  of  choosing  the  Principal,  —  a 
power  hitherto  held  by  the  Convention  of  the  Dio- 
cese. Other  features,  better  suited  to  the  object  of  a 
preparatory  school  of  the  highest  order,  were  incor- 
porated into  the  several  articles,  and  as  much  of  the 
old  letter  retained  as  comported  with  the  design  of 
the  new  organization.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Trustees 
in  May,  the  Rev.  Allen  C.  Morgan,  Rector  of  St. 
John's  Church,  Waterbury,  was  appointed  provisional 
Principal,  but  he  did  not  accept  the  appointment 
until  it  had  been  renewed  with  great  unanimity  by  the 
Convention  of  1836,  when  he  immediately  prepared 
to  enter  upon  its  duties.  Success  attended  his  efforts 
to  revive  the  Academy,  and  restore  it  to  the  measure 
of  its  ancient  prosperity,  but,  at  the  end  of  two  years, 
his  sudden  death,  while  on  a  journey  to  New  York, 
again  created  a  vacancy,  which  was  filled  by  electing 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  315 

as  Principal  the  author  of  this  work,  at  that  time  the 
youthful  Rector  of  St.  Peter's  Church  in  Cheshire. 

The  Convention  of  1836  revised,  also,  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  Church  in  the  Diocese,  in  accordance 
with  amendments  proposed  the  previous  year,  and 
put  back,  to  its  old  historic  place  in  June,  the  time  of 
the  annual  meeting. 

St.  James's  Church,  Westville,  in  the  town  of  New 
Haven,  St.  Mark's  Church,  New  Britain,  and  Christ 
Church,  Westport,  were  new  parishes,  added,  the  first 
named  in  1835,  the  other  two  in  1836,  to  the  list  of 
those  in  union  with  the  Convention.  Houses  of  wor- 
ship were  erected  at  once  for  each  of  these  parishes, 
and,  in  several  of  the  older  ones,  steps  were  taken 
which  indicated  the  advancement  of  the  Church.  A 
chapel  was  built  and  consecrated  in  the  autumn  of 
1835,  at  Bethel,  in  Danbury,  out  of  which  has  since 
sprung  a  thrifty  parochial  organization.  A  spacious 
church  of  gray  stone,  not  architecturally  imposing 
or  attractive,  was  built  by  St.  John's  parish,  Bridge- 
port, and  a  smaller  one,  of  like  material  and  better 
design,  by  the  parish  in  Guilford,  and  both  were  con- 
secrated in  1838.  Within  the  period  embraced  in 
this  chapter,  new  churches  were  consecrated  at  North 
Haven,  Bethlehem,  Southport,  Bristol,  Oxford,  Milton, 
Bridgewater,  New  Milford,  Glastenbury,  Brookfield, 
Trumbull,  and  Cheshire.  Those  at  North  Haven, 
Glastenbury,  Bethlehem,  and  Cheshire,  were  con- 
structed of  brick,  the  rest  of  wood. 

In  his  address  to  the  Annual  Convention  of  1837, 
Bishop  Brownell  referred  to  the  fact,  that  he  had 
been  able  to  visit  all  the  parishes  of  the  Diocese,  with 
few  exceptions,  each  year  since  his  "  withdrawal  from 


316  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  charge  of  Washington  College."  But,  he  went 
on  to  say,  "  it  becomes  a  question  of  considerable 
moment,  whether  such  frequent  visitations  are  really 
useful  to  the  parishes  ?  I  certainly  deem  it  useful 
annually  to  become  acquainted  with  the  condition  of 
each  particular  parish ;  and  it  affords  me,  personally, 
much  gratification  annually  to  meet  each  of  my 
brethren  of  the  clergy  in  his  own  domestic  circle,  to 
see  the  faces  of  my  brethren  of  the  laity,  and  to 
enjoy  the  hospitality  and  kindness  which,  on  such 
occasions,  I  never  fail  to  experience.  Yet  it  may 
reasonably  be  questioned,  whether  such  frequent 
visitations  do  not  diminish  the  interest  which  would 
otherwise  be  attached  to  them  ?  I  would  especially 
call  the  attention  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  Conven- 
tion to  this  question,  in  reference  to  the  holy  rite 
of  Confirmation.  When  that  rite  is  administered 
annually,  there  will  be,  of  course,  but  a  small  number 
to  receive  it.  Does  not  the  smallness  of  the  number 
sometimes  detract  from  the  interest  which  the  clergy- 
man and  the  congregation  would  otherwise  attach  to 
the  administration  of  it  ?  When  it  is  felt,  too,  that 
the  rite  may  be  received  the  very  next  season,  does 
not  this  consideration  sometimes  lead  to  a  postpone- 
ment of  the  preparation  for  it  to  another,  and  another, 
and  another  year  ?  And  do  not  such  frequent  visita- 
tions sometimes  become  rather  opportunities  for  the 
gratification  of  private  friendship,  than  the  occasions 
for  the  performance  of  official  duties  ?  The  question 
here  presented  is  one  on  which  my  own  mind  is  not 
yet  definitely  settled.  I  leave  it  with  my  brethren 
for  their  future  consideration  and  ultimate  counsel." 
And  his  brethren,  in  taking   up  the   subject  the 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  317 

next  year,  referred  it  to  a  committee,  who  suggested 
an  alteration  in  the  time  and  manner  of  making  his 
visitations.  "The  number  of  congregations  in  the 
Diocese,"  said  they,  "  is  such,  that  if  the  Bishop  visits 
them  all  every  year,  in  those  seasons  which  are  favor- 
able for  an  attendance  on  public  worship,  his  stay 
in  each  parish  must,  necessarily,  be  very  short.  This 
circumstance,  alone,  may  account  for  the  occasional 
negligence  which  exists  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  to 
accompany  the  Bishop  in  his  visitations,  and  the  con- 
sequent transient  effects  produced  by  them.  Could 
the  clergy  be  excited  to  take  a  deep  interest  in  them, 
and  accompany  the  Bishop  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
show  the  laity  that  they  consider  them  important, 
and  to  enable  the  rector  of  the  parish  visited  to  have 
such  additional  services  as  the  situation  of  his  parish 
might  require,  this  evil  might  be  remedied." 

Hence  resolutions  were  adopted,  to  the  effect,  that 
it  be  not  expected  of  the  Bishop  to  visit  each  parish 
every  year,  —  the  canon  then,  as  now,  required  an 
Episcopal  visitation  once  in  three  years, —  but  that  it 
be  recommended  to  him,  so  to  arrange  his  visitations 
as  to  allow  more  time  to  each  parish,  and  that  the 
clergy  accompany  him  on  such  visitations  as  far  as 
their  respective  duties  would  permit. 

Great  sensibility  to  the  concerns  of  religion  was 
evinced  in  Connecticut,  soon  after  Bishop  Brownell 
put  forth  his  suggestions.  A  revival  prevailed  in 
some  parts  of  the  State,  and  symptoms  of  renewed 
vitality  were  seen  in  many  parishes,  that  called  for 
special  visitations.  As  a  consequence  of  this,  he 
reported,  in  1838,  a  larger  number  of  persons  con- 
firmed than  he  had  reported  in  any  one  year  during 


318  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  preceding  five.  The  number  of  parishes  visited 
was  not  much  diminished  in  the  next  two  years,  and 
from  1829,  when  he  summed  up  his  confirmations,  to 
1840,  he  had  added  to  the  list  four  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  seventy-two,  making  in  all,  to  that  date, 
since  his  consecration  to  the  Episcopate,  including 
those  confirmed  during  his  first  two  visits  to  the 
southwest,  eight  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty-six. 
The  communicants,  in  1840,  as  reported  in  fifty-eight 
parishes,  were  five  thousand  four  hundred  and  sixty- 
eight,  but  as  no  returns  were  received  from  full  a 
score  of  the  smaller  parishes,  the  whole  number  in 
the  Diocese  must  have  been,  at  least,  six  thousand. 
The  aggregate  of  new  communicants  since  1819  ex- 
ceeded this  number. 

The  "Episcopal  Watchman,"  a  weekly  paper  de- 
voted to  the  interests  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut, 
was  published  in  Hartford  for  seven  years,  and  then, 
in  the  beginning  of  1834,  it  was  discontinued,  and 
the  list  of  subscribers  was  transferred  to  a  New  York 
publication.  But  the  churchmen  of  the  Diocese,  who 
had  been  so  long  accustomed  to  a  periodical  of  their 
own,  were  not  content  to  be  thus  served,  and  a  lay- 
man1 was  encouraged  in  a  scheme  of  issuing  another 

1  Alonzo  B.  Chapin,  Esq.,  the  son  of*  a  Congregational  minister,  and  edu- 
cated for  the  legal  profession.  He  read  himself  into  the  Episcopal  Church, 
and,  becoming  a  candidate  for  Holy  Orders,  was  ordained  a  deacon  in 
1838.  He  was  a  student  of  remarkable  industry,  and  stored  his  mind  with 
a  fund  of  varied  knowledge,  some  of  which  he  put  forth  in  the  shape  of 
pamphlets,  reviews,  and  books,  that  gained  for  him  a  wide  reputation 
among  churchmen.  He  was  too  rapid  a  writer  to  be  always  accurate,  and 
more  care  and  scholarship  would  have  added  to  the  value  of  his  historical 
publications.  The  work  by  which  he  is  best  known,  is  A  view  of  the 
Organization  and  Order  of  the  Primitive  Church.  He  was  honored  with 
the  degree  of  D.  D.  by  the  Norwich  University,  of  Vermont,  and  died  at 
Hartford,  after  much  bodily  suffering,  in  1858,  at  the  age  of  50. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  319 

weekly  paper,  to  be  called  the  "  Chronicle  of  the 
Church."  It  was  an  inauspicious  time  to  begin  an 
enterprise  of  this  sort,  for  the  embarrassments  in  the 
commercial  world  were  great,  and  there  was  much 
derangement  in  the  currency  of  the  country.  But, 
with  liberal  promises  in  the  outset,  and  a  partial 
indorsement  of  the  object  by  the  Convention  of  the 
Diocese,  the  paper,  the  first  number  of  which  was 
issued  at  New  Haven,  Epiphany,  1837,  soon  ob- 
tained a  fair  circulation,  and  was  continued  under 
the  charge  of  its  original  editor  for  eight  years,  when 
it  was  removed  to  Hartford,  and  merged  in  "The 
Calendar." * 

The  number  of  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  con- 
tinued to  increase  in  Connecticut,  without  really 
adding  many  to  the  list  of  the  parochial  clergy.  Age 
and  infirmity  gradually  removed  the  names  which 
had  stood  the  longest  on  this  list,  and  the  Rev. 
Reuben  Ives  went  to  his  rest  in  October,  1836,  hav- 
ing several  years  before  retired  from  the  active  duties 
of  the  ministry.  But  Ashbel  Baldwin,  Daniel  Bur- 
hans,  and  Truman  Marsh,  each  without  any  charge, 
still  lingered,  the  only  survivors  of  those  belong- 
ing to  Connecticut  who  were  ordained  by  its  first 
Bishop. 

As  fast  as  the  new  candidates  were  admitted  to  the 
priesthood,  they  seemed  to  be  wanted  in  other  Dioceses; 

l  This  was  a  weekly  paper  published,  under  different  editors,  until  1866, 
when  it  took  the  name  of  the  Connecticut  Churchman,  and  the  next 
year  it  assumed  a  broader  title,  The  Churchman.  No  official  sanction 
by  the  Convention,  of  what  has  become  a  strictly  private  enterprise,  has 
been  sought  or  given  for  nearly  thirty  years.  It  has  long  been  the  uni- 
versal feeling  that  Church  periodicals  of  all  kinds,  in  this  country,  must 
depend  for  support  upon  their  intrinsic  merits. 


320  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

and  there  were  those  among  them  who  could  not  well 
decline  the  invitations  to  rectorships  elsewhere,  that 
promised  a  liberal  support  and  a  wide  field  of  useful- 
ness. In  1840,  Bishop  Brownell  stated,  in  his  address 
to  the  Annual  Convention,  that  he  had  granted,  dur- 
ing the  previous  year,  letters  dimissory  to  thirteen 
clergymen,  —  ten  of  them  being  natives  of  Connecti- 
cut. The  parishes  were  constantly  gaining  strength, 
and  the  weaker  ones  were  beginning  to  ask  for  more 
frequent  services,  and  all  for  "  clergymen  who  were 
supposed  to  possess  higher  qualifications  of  learning 
or  talents."  But  there  was  an  evil,  in  the  power  of 
the  laity  to  remedy,  which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  much 
of  this  uncertainty  in  the  pastoral  relations.  While 
many  of  the  necessaries  of  life  had  become  more 
expensive,  —  some  of  them  having  doubled  in  value, 
—  and  while  the  wages  of  common  laborers  and  of 
mechanics  had  been  increased  in  the  same  proportion, 
there  was  not  a  corresponding  improvement  in  the 
provision  made  for  the  maintenance  of  the  clergy. 
Their  salaries  in  Connecticut  stood,  substantially, 
where  they  had  stood  for  twenty  years,  and,  as  tax- 
ing had  ceased,  and  the  support  of  religion  was 
wholly  voluntary,  large  parishes  in  the  agricultural 
towns  appeared  to  think  they  were  doing  liberally, 
if  they  each  paid  an  annual  salary  of  five  hundred 
dollars.  Even  this,  in  some  cases,  was  doled  out  in  a 
way  quite  unsatisfactory  and  embarrassing  to  the 
receivers. 

Bishop  Brownell,  therefore,  very  properly  called 
the  attention  of  the  laity  to  the  subject,  in  1839,  and 
urged  them  to  inquire  whether  justice  was  extended 
to  the  labors  of  the  clergy.     He  spoke  of  the  con- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  321 

stant  demands  for  "  higher  qualifications  in  classical 
education,"  and  then  said  :  — 

"  The  money  now  required  to  carry  a  young  man 
through  the  Academy,  the  College,  and  the  Theologi- 
cal Seminary,  would  purchase  a  considerable  farm,  or 
constitute  a  moderate  capital  for  the  young  manu- 
facturer, mechanic,  or  merchant.  And  yet  how  dif- 
ferent are  the  worldly  prospects  of  these  classes  ? 
The  industrious  farmer  may  secure  a  competence  for 
his  family,  or  even  rise  to  affluence.  The  mechanic, 
the  manufacturer,  and  the  merchant  may  become 
rich,  through  the  many  avenues  of  enterprise.  But 
the  clergyman,  whose  intelligence  might  find  such 
scope  in  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  must  be  content 
with  the  mere  necessaries  of  life.  And  if  he  leaves 
a  family  behind  him,  when  he  is  called  from  his 
labors,  they  must  be  consigned  to  the  charities  of  the 
world,  or  to  the  care  of  more  fortunate  relatives  or 
friends. 

"  It  is  true  that  the  clergyman  has  higher  ends  and 
aims  than  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  It  is  also  true, 
that  the  cares  of  riches  might  tend  to  withdraw  his 
thoughts  from  his  more  sacred  duties.  But  it  must 
be  remembered  that  poverty  has  also  its  cares.  And, 
though  I  would  not  wish  to  see  a  wealthy  clergy,  I 
would  desire  to  see  every  clergyman's  mind  freed 
from  corroding  anxieties  in  regard  to  the  immediate 
support  of  his  family ;  and  I  think  it  not  too  much  to 
desire,  also,  that  he  should  be  able  to  lay  aside  some 
little  provision  for  the  support  of  his  old  age,  or  to 
secure  a  bereaved  family  from  absolute  want. 

"  In  this  Diocese,  I  know  of  no  clergyman  with  a 
family,  who  receives   greater   compensation   for   his 

VOL.  II.  21 


322  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

services  than  is  necessary  for  his  immediate  and  mod- 
erate support.  I  know  of  many  who  are  scarcely 
able  to  maintain  their  families,  with  the  most  rigid 
economy,  and  who  have  a  hard  struggle  to  keep  free 
from  the  humiliation  of  unpaid  demands  for  the  com- 
mon necessaries  of  life.  The  condition  of  the  unmar- 
ried clergy  is  but  little  better,  for,  in  most  cases,  any 
modicum  they  may  be  able  to  save  from  their  neces- 
sary expenses  must  be  expended  in  books,  or  applied 
to  the  payment  of  debts  incurred  during  their  prep- 
aration for  the  ministry. 

"  Brethren  of  the  laity,  these  things  ought  not  so 
to  be.  They  are  repugnant  to  justice,  to  humanity, 
and  to  Scripture.  'The  laborer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire.'  .  .  . 

"  I  say  not  these  things  at  the  instance  of  the 
clergy,  for  they  are  as  uncomplaining  as  they  are 
self-denying.  But,  as  Providence  has  placed  me  in  a 
station  to  witness  their  privations,  as  well  as  their 
devoted  labors,  and  knowing,  as  I  do,  the  discourage- 
ments which  those  privations  throw  in  the  way  of 
those  who  are  looking  forward  to  the  sacred  office,  I 
should  be  unfaithful  to  my  duty,  and  unjust  to  my 
feelings,  if  I  failed  to  inculcate  upon  the  several 
parishes  of  this  Diocese  the  immediate  necessity  of  a 
more  adequate  provision  for  the  support  of  their 
clergy." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  323 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

EDUCATION  IN  THE  CHURCH;   OXFORD  TRACTS;   FOURTH  CHARGE 
OF  BISHOP  BROWNELL;   AND  NEW  PARISHES. 

A.  D.  1840  -  1843. 

The  public  schools  of  Connecticut  offered  so  many 
advantages  for  a  preliminary  course  of  instruction, 
that  churchmen  committed  their  children  to  them, 
regardless  of  the  evils  by  which  they  were  attended. 
The  munificent  fund  provided  by  the  State  for  the 
purposes  of  primary  education,  continued  to  operate 
as  a  check  upon  the  establishment  of  parochial 
schools  or  private  seminaries.  But  the  question  was 
sometimes  raised,  whether  efforts  ought  not  to  be 
encouraged  for  bringing  a  larger  number  of  the 
children  of  Episcopalians  under  the  constant  influ- 
ence of  the  teachings  of  the  Church  ?  It  was  felt  to 
be  unwise  to  subject  to  sectarian  influences  those 
youth,  especially,  who  must  be  sent  from  home  to 
finish  their  education,  or  who,  having  passed  beyond 
the  common  schools,  needed  the  higher  instruction 
of  the  academy  to  prepare  them  for  college,  or  for 
the  counting-room.  The  Diocesan  institution  at 
Cheshire,  though  prosperous  and  doing  its  work  well, 
could  not  provide  for  all  of  this  class. 

The  fashion  of  family  boarding-schools  for  each 
sex,  separately,  was  now  extending,  and,  from  time 
to  time,  a  few  clergymen  of  the  Diocese,  with  insuffi- 


324  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

cient  salaries  from  their  parishes,  or  with  a  taste  for 
teaching,  were  induced  to  advertise  for  scholars,  and 
to  make  arrangements  for  their  reception  in  the  best 
manner  they  could.  With  limited  accommodations, 
the  number  in  each  case  was  usually,  at  first,  small, 
but  out  of  these  and  similar  efforts  have  grown  pri- 
vate educational  institutions,  which,  receiving  pupils 
from  different  sections  of  the  country,  have  had  a 
long  season  of  prosperity,  and  benefited  the  Church 
at  the  same  time  that  they  have  rewarded,  in  a 
measure,  the  toil  of  their  projectors.  During  the 
period  from  childhood  to  youth,  external  influences 
are  the  most  potent  in  their  operation,  and  for  this 
reason,  teachers  who  command  the  respect  and  affec- 
tion of  their  pupils,  will  naturally  impress  upon  them, 
even  though  they  use  none  of  the  arts  of  proselytism, 
their  own  views  of  important  questions  concerning 
morals  and  religion.  It  is  an  inaccurate  assumption, 
that  if  there  be  given  to  a  child  certain  general 
principles,  he  will,  of  himself,  erect  upon  them  the 
proper  superstructure.  As  the  natural  tendency  of 
the  human  mind  is  not  to  right  doctrines,  so  no 
Christian  parent,  living  in  the  faith  of  our  Church,  can 
consent  to  leave  it  to  the  individual  judgment  of  his 
son  to  fix  what  course  he  will  pursue,  and  what  creed 
he  shall  adopt. 

The  Convention  of  1840,  acting  upon  that  part  of 
Bishop  Brownell's  address  which  related  to  the  sub- 
ject of  education,  adopted  the  report  of  a  committee, 
which  contained  these  words  :  — 

"Let  churchmen  patronize  their  own  institutions. 
All  similar  institutions  are  now,  by  tacit  and  common 
consent,  under  the  influence  of  particular  denomina- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  325 

tions.  Tf  we  send  our  children  where  their  religious 
faith  is  in  danger  of  being  perverted,  we  have  no 
one  to  blame  for  it  but  ourselves.  Let  the  clergy 
exert  themselves,  by  persuasion  and  remonstrance, 
to  induce  the  laity,  in  their  respective  cures,  not  to 
sacrifice  to  convenience  or  to  fancied  intellectual  ad- 
vantages, the  spiritual  welfare  of  their  children." 

Appended  to  the  whole  report  were  several  resolu- 
lutions,  and  among  them  one  :  — 

"  That  it  is  the  duty  of  every  member  of  the 
Church  in  this  Diocese  to  unite  in  establishing,  or 
improving,  if  already  established,  Episcopal  acade- 
mies or  other  schools  for  the  higher  instruction  of 
youth,  and  not  to  expose  the  children  of  the  Church 
to  be  perverted  by  sectarian  influences." 

All  this  was  recommended  in  reference  to  institu- 
tions for  males,  and  the  College  at  Hartford,  about 
which  there  was  dissatisfaction  in  some  quarters,  be- 
cause it  did  not  attract  a  larger  number  of  students, 
was  presented  to  the  Convention,  not  only  as  deser- 
ving a  place  in  the  hearts  of  Connecticut  churchmen, 
but  as  entitled  to  the  confidence  and  support  of  those 
who  belonged  to  other  dioceses.  The  education  of 
females,  quite  as  important  in  many  of  its  aspects  as 
that  of  males,  was  not  touched  directly  in  the  report, 
and  it  has  never  been  made  a  subject  of  legislation 
or  public  counsel  by  the  Church  in  Connecticut.  But 
seminaries  for  this  purpose  were  established  in  some 
of  the  principal  towns  of  the  State  by  Christian 
women,  upon  their  own  responsibility,  and  under  the 
patronage  of  leading  clergymen  and  laymen  ;  and 
many  parishes  in  remote  parts  of  the  land,  as  well 
as  nearer  home,  have  felt  the  influence  of  the  good 


326  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

training  of  those  who,  from  school-girls,  have  become 
mistresses  of  households,  and  zealous  promoters  of 
the  interests  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 

A  theological  movement  in  England,  under  the 
management  of  a  few  distinguished  divines  of  Oxford, 
assumed  a  character  which  was  beginning  to  create 
uneasiness  and  alarm.  The  growth  of  latitudinarian 
sentiments,  and  the  ignorance  which  prevailed  con- 
cerning the  spiritual  claims  of  the  Church,  were  evils 
in  the  mother  country,  which  the  writers  of  the 
"  Tracts  for  the  Times  "  at  first  professed  to  be  desir- 
ous of  reaching  and  remedying.  But,  in  their  zeal 
to  revive  neglected  usages  and  excite  a  veneration 
for  Catholic  antiquity,  they  seemed  to  be  carried 
beyond  their  original  purpose,  as  announced,  and 
they  were  led  to  make  statements  in  their  writings 
which  conflicted  with  the  principles  of  the  English 
Reformation,  and  rendered  them  liable  to  the  charge 
of  Romanizing  tendencies.  Feelings  of  strong  parti- 
sanship were  indulged  in  the  controversy  which  fol- 
lowed the  publication  of  the  Tracts,  and  while  the 
Oxford  divines  embraced  every  opportunity  to  clear 
themselves  from  the  imputation  of  Popery,  and  de- 
nied that  Church  principles  could  ever  become  the 
path  to  superstition  and  idolatry,  their  opponents,  on 
the  other  hand,  persistently  charged  them  with  look- 
ing in  the  direction  of  Rome,  and  forsaking  and  con- 
demning the  spirit  and  doctrines  of  the  English  Re- 
formers. 

With  the  appearance  of  the  Tracts  in  this  country 
came  much  of  the  evil  of  the  foreign  controversy, 
and  party  spirit,  for  a  time,  ran  high  in  the  Church. 
As  a  consequence,  the    publications  were   both   de- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  327 

fended  and  denounced  by  those  who  had  never  read 
them;  and  the  judgment  of  the  clergy,  and  of  intel- 
ligent laymen,  interested  in  theological  science,  was, 
in  a  measure,  forestalled  by  the  discussions  and  state- 
ments about  them  in  the  popular  periodicals  of  the 
day.  Connecticut  was  not  a  good  field  in  which  to 
carry  on  a  controversy  of  this  kind,  and,  perhaps,  no 
Diocese  in  the  land  manifested  less  concern  in  the 
progress  of  the  whole  movement.  Bishop  Brown  ell 
referred  to  the  subject  in  his  address  to  the  Annual 
Convention  of  1840,  and  he  was  so  well  convinced 
of  the  truth  and  propriety  of  the  sentiments  which 
he  then  expressed,  that  he  repeated  them  in  his  ad- 
dress the  next  year  without  changing  a  word.  After 
stating  his  repugnance  to  innovation,  and  his  desire 
to  see  his  brethren  pursuing  a  course  li  equally  free 
from  the  errors  of  the  Romish  superstition,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  from  the  novelties  and  devices  of 
sectarian  dissent,  on  the  other,"  he  added  some  words 
about  the  controversies  which  had  sprung  from  the 
Oxford  Tracts,  and  said  :  — 

"  If  the  learned  authors  have  sometimes  manifested 
an  undue  veneration  for  the  writings  of  the  early 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  and  an  undue  admiration  for 
some  ceremonies  dropped  at  the  Reformation,  there 
can  be  little  danger  from  their  enthusiasm  on  these 
subjects,  in  a  country  of  free  discussion ;  and  a  nearer 
approximation  to  the  truth  will  be  the  probable  result 
in  England  of  the  present  controversy.  I  cannot 
help  thinking,  however,  that  in  that  country  much  of 
the  heat  of  this  controversy,  and  much  of  the  interest 
which  it  has  excited,  have  been  occasioned  by  its  con- 
nection with  those  party  politics,  and  sectarian  preju- 


328  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

dices,  which  prevail  there.  In  our  own  country,  the 
first  of  these  causes  can  have  no  influence,  and  the  lat- 
ter must  be  much  less  strongly  felt ;  and  we  should  be 
unable  to  account  for  the  sensation  which  the  discus- 
sion has  excited  among  us,  were  it  not  for  the  influ- 
ence of  those  sympathies  and  antipathies  which,  in 
the  present  state  of  intercourse,  are  so  easily  propa- 
gated across  the  Atlantic. 

"The  circumstances  under  which  our  Church  has 
grown  up  in  this  country,  have  led  us  to  regard  it  in 
its  true  character,  not  as  a  State  establishment,  but  as 
a  divine  institution.  As  a  minor  denomination  of 
Christians,  too,  we  have  been  constantly  compelled 
to  act  on  the  defensive,  and  have  been  more  gen- 
erally accustomed,  than  our  English  brethren,  to  refer 
its  constitution  to  the  appropriate  Scriptural  author- 
ity, and  its  usages  to  those  early  Christian  writings, 
by  which  they  can  be  successfully  defended. 

"Though  I  do  not  imagine  that  the  Tracts  referred 
to,  or  the  discussions  which  have  grown  out  of.  them, 
will  lead  to  any  material  change  of  sentiment  in 
regard  to  the  doctrines,  discipline,  or  usages  of  the 
Church,  as  they  are  now  received  and  practiced  by 
us,  yet  the  writers  will  not  fail  to  command  our 
respect  for  their  learning,  their  talents,  and  their 
piety.  And  if  the  controversies  which  they  have 
aroused,  both  in  England  and  in  this  country,  are 
attended  with  some  violations  of  Christian  charity,  it 
is  to  be  hoped  that  the  evil  will  be  counterbalanced, 
in  the  ultimate  elucidation  and  establishment  of 
truth. 

"  For  ourselves,  brethren,  we  are  much  less  con- 
cerned about  new  discoveries  in  religion,  than  we  are 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  329 

to  preserve,  in  their  integrity  and  purity,  the  faith 
and  worship  which  now  pertain  to  our  Church ; 
founded,  as  they  are,  in  the  Scriptures  of  truth,  freed 
from  the  errors  and  incumbrances  of  superstition  by 
the  Reformation,  and  detached  from  all  embarrassing 
alliance  with  the  State,  by  the  civil  constitution  of 
our  country.  We  love  the  Church  as  it  is ;  Nolumus 
midari." 

It  will  be  seen  in  a  future  chapter,  that  the  com- 
placency with  which  the  Bishop  at  first  viewed  this 
theological  movement,  was  somewhat  disturbed  by  its 
later  developments  and  fruits,  and  he  had  reason  to 
"  deprecate  the  treachery  of  perverting  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church,  or  the  teaching  of  dogmas  alien  to 
her  faith,  while  ministering  at  her  altars." 

The  Annual  Convention  of  the  Diocese,  which  met 
at  Hartford  in  1843,  was  composed  of  sixty-four 
clergymen  and  seventy-three  lay  delegates.  On  this 
occasion,  he  delivered  his  fourth  and  last  charge  to 
the  clergjr,  entitled  "  Errors  of  the  Times,"  —  a  sug- 
gestive subject,  which  admitted  of  a  wide  range  of 
thought,  and  embraced  a  view  of  things  that  could 
not  well  be  considered  in  his  usual  addresses.  The 
tone  and  temper  of  the  "  dissenting  press "  were 
against  the  Church ;  and  its  various  periodicals,  tak- 
ing advantage  of  the  feeling  excited  by  the  discus- 
sions recently  commenced  at  the  University  of  Oxford, 
joined  in  a  "  general  crusade  against  Popery,  Pusey- 
ism,  and  Prelacy."  The  charge  was  the  longest  which 
the  Bishop  had  delivered,  and  about  one  half  of  it  was 
occupied  with  remarks  on  the  abuses  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment  in  matters  of  religion,  and  on  some 
of  the  errors  which  have  prevailed  in  modern  times 


330  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

respecting  the  Church  of  God  and  its  ministry.  An 
extract  from  this  part  of  it  will  show  the  tenor  of  his 
counsels  upon  one  of  the  topics :  — 

"  The  general  exercise  of  private  judgment,  and 
the  freedom  of  the  will,  is,  indeed,  the  natural  and 
inalienable  right  of  every  man.  But  he  is  responsi- 
ble to  his  God,  and,  in  a  minor  degree,  to  his  fellow 
men,  for  the  manner  in  which  he  exercises  those 
faculties.  He  may  not  rightly  set  them  up  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  word  of  God.  He  may  not  rightly 
exercise  them  in  a  spirit  of  vanity,  of  perversity,  or 
of  self-conceit.  He  may  not  rightly  exercise  them  in 
a  way  injurious  to  the  peace  and  order  of  society,  nor 
without  a  due  veneration  for  the  judgment  of  the 
Church  and  its  ministry,  so  far  as  that  judgment  is 
supported  by  primitive  tradition  and  usage,  and  is  in 
conformity  to  the  divine  word.  We  deem  him  self- 
sufficient  and  conceited,  who  pays  no  respect  to 
public  opinion,  even  though  that  opinion  may,  per- 
haps, be  founded  on  the  caprice  of  the  day.  Much 
less  is  he  to  be  commended  who  sets  at  naught  the 
opinions  which  have  stood  the  scrutiny  of  ages,  and 
which  have,  for  centuries,  received  the  sanction  of  the 
universal  Church. 

"  It  was  under  these  views  of  the  right  of  private 
judgment,  that  the  Reformation  of  the  Church  of 
England  was  conducted  through  many  vicissitudes, 
and  brought  to  a  successful  issue.  The  result  is 
fully  embodied  in  our  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  —  a 
standard  of  faith  and  worship  which  seems  to  be 
almost  the  only  permanent  religious  monument  of 
the  Reformation  in  Protestant  Christendom.  The 
communions  planted  by  Calvin  and  Zuinglius,  have 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  331 

become  deeply  imbued  with  Socinianism  and  infi- 
delity. Those  founded  by  Luther  and  Melancthon 
have  been  corrupted  by  Rationalism,  and  every  spe- 
cies of  vain  philosophy.  The  stern  Church  of  John 
Knox  has  shared,  to  a  great  degree,  a  similar  fate, 
and  is,  moreover,  rent  by  internal  divisions.  Has 
Puritanism  enjoyed  a  happier  destiny,  either  in  Eu- 
rope or  in  this  country  ?  Let  the  schisms,  the  here- 
sies, the  infidelity,  the  fanaticism,  which  have  every- 
where sprung  up  from  its  distractions,  answer  the 
question.  The  erroneous  notions  of  the  right  of 
private  judgment,  under  which  all  these  communions 
were  established,  have  been  constantly  growing  to 
greater  and  greater  lengths  of  extravagance,  till  the 
tone  of  public  sentiment  on  this  subject  is  utterly 
perverted.  Under  this  state  of  things  it  seems  to 
create  but  little  horror,  or  even  surprise,  for  a  man  to 
avow  openly  that  he  is  not  a  Christian.  The  sentiment 
is  still  more  common,  that  it  is  a  matter  of  entire  in- 
difference with  what  particular  sect  a  man  connects 
himself;  nor  is  it  thought  a  matter  of  much  impor- 
tance that  he  should  unite  with  any  Christian  denomi- 
nation, provided  that  he  be  sincere  in  his  religion. 
The  same  state  of  public  sentiment  has  afforded  a 
strong  stimulant  to  the  aspirings  of  religious  ambi- 
tion, and  the  arts  of  hypocrisy.  Learned  theologians 
have  vied  with  ignorant  fanatics  and  wicked  impos- 
tors, in  founding  and  extending  new  sects  of  religion- 
ists. No  metaphysical  quibble  appears  too  slight  to 
obtain  partisans,  no  extravagance  too  absurd  to  gain 
disciples,  and  no  imposture  too  gross  to  secure  be- 
lievers." 1 

1  Charge,  1843,  pp.  7,  8. 


332  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

In  the  latter  portion  of  the  charge,  the  Sacrament 
of  Baptism  was  considered,  and  some  of  those  errors 
in  regard  to  it  noticed,  which  appeared  to  be  the 
most  deeply  seated  in  the  public  mind,  and  the  most 
injurious  in  their  tendency.  It  was  his  belief  that 
there  was  but  little  real  difference  of  sentiment, 
among  churchmen,  as  to  the  true  interpretation  of 
the  baptismal  office,  and  that  the  controversies  which 
had  been  carried  on  concerning  it  were  mainly  dis- 
putes about  words.  The  change  of  state  effected  in 
baptism  is  called  in  Scripture,  and  in  the  Prayer 
Book,  regeneration,  but  the  "New  Light  Theology," 
dating  back  to  the  times  of  Whitefield  and  Edwards, 
applied  the  term  to  the  process  of  spiritual  renova- 
tion, sometimes  designated  as  the  new  birth  or  a 
change  of  heart. 

"The  use  of  the  word,"  said  the  Bishop,  "in  a  sense 
so  different  from  its  former  acceptation,  has  led  to  a 
lamentable  misunderstanding  and  misrepresentation 
of  the  doctrine  of  baptismal  regeneration,  as  held  by 
our  Church.  It  is  probable,  too,  that  another  error 
has  concurred  in  producing  this  misapprehension. 
The  idea  of  perseverance  in  grace  is  popularly  con- 
nected with  that  of  change  of  heart,  and  it  is  hence 
inferred,  that  if  a  person  be  regenerated  in  baptism, 
his  salvation  is  secured.  But  the  Church  holds  no 
such  doctrine." 

Profound  deference  was  no  longer  paid  to  the 
authoritative  teaching  of  the  chief  Protestant  denom- 
inations on  the  subject.  The  Congregational  minis- 
ters virtually  rejected  this  teaching,  by  allowing  so 
much  latitude  to  the  right  of  private  judgment,  and 
by  yielding  to  the  wide-spread  influence  of  new  views 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  333 

in  religion.  A  few  citations  in  the  charge  from  the 
writings  of  the  principal  Continental  Reformers,  and 
from  the  standards  of  the  Westminster  and  New  Eng- 
land divines  served  to  show  that  their  doctrinal  views 
in  regard  to  baptism  assimilated  to  those  of  the 
Church  of  England.  But  the  great  idea  of  the  new 
heart  absorbed  all  other  considerations. 

u  Whatever  vague  generalities  may  be  uttered  con- 
cerning the  duty  of  baptism,  it  is  but  too  commonly 
regarded  as  a  mere  ceremonial  observance,  —  a  mere 
sign,  unaccompanied  by  anything  signified.  Practi- 
cally, there  is  an  utter  unbelief  in  its  sacramental 
efficacy.  And  the  pious  nurture  of  children,  whether 
baptized  or  not  (so  far,  at  least,  as  their  religious  state 
is  concerned),  is  considered  of  no  avail,  until,  some 
time  during  life,  they  shall  become  subjects  of  the 
'  new  birth ; '  converted  by  a  sudden  '  change  of  heart,' 
of  which  they  have  a  distinct  consciousness,  and  in 
which  they  are  entirely  passive.  Though,  in  reading 
the  Scriptures,  baptized  persons  are  represented  as 
members  of  the  '  family '  and  '  household '  of  Christ ; 
as  '  fellow-citizens  with  the  saints  : '  as  '  members  of 
Christ,'  ' children  of  God,'  and  'heirs  of  the  kingdom 
of  heaven ; '  as  having  '  put  on  Christ '  by  baptism  ; 
and  as  being  'buried  with  him  in  baptism,'  —  yet  these 
are  all  regarded  by  those  who  are  imbued  with  the 
new  theology,  as  mere  figurative  modes  of  expression, 
from  which  they  derive  no  distinct  conception  of  the 
real  efficacy  of  the  sacrament."  1 

The  charge  provoked  the  hostility  of  all  the  ecclesi- 
astical organizations  which,  following  the  lead  of  their 
ministers,  inclined  to  lower  the  nature  and  obligation 

1  Pase  30. 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

of  baptism,  and  to  exalt  unduly  the  importance  of  ex- 
perimental religion.  Writers  in  some  of  the  religious 
periodicals  of  Connecticut  run  their  pens  against  it, 
and  besides  being  subjected  to  long  and  searching  re- 
views from  the  press,  it  was  made  the  theme  of  dis- 
course from  more  than  one  Congregational  pulpit. 
The  Bishop  seemed  to  anticipate  a  reception  of  this 
kind,  for,  in  the  conclusion  of  the  charge,  he  said  :  — 

"  I  am  aware  that  the  plainness  of  speech  which  has 
characterized  this  discourse,  will  bring  upon  me  the 
imputation  of  uncharitableness,  by  those  who  dissent 
from  my  opinions.  I  am  not  conscious  of  any  such 
feeling,  and  it  has  been  my  desire  to  express  myself 
with  proper  Christian  courtesy.  But  charity  consists 
not  in  the  suppression  of  important  truths,  nor  in 
overlooking  important  errors.  It  is  sufficient  that  we 
entertain  kindly  feelings  towards  those  whom  we  be- 
lieve to  be  in  error,  and  adhere  to  the  great  law  of 
equity,  by  doing  to  others  as  we  would  have  them  do 
to  us.  The  views  which  I  have  presented  in  relation 
to  the  right  of  private  judgment  in  matters  of  religion, 
in  regard  to  the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  its  ministry,  and  sacraments,  are  widely 
different  from  the  opinions  held  by  many  wise  and 
good  men  around  us.  I  question  not  their  intelli- 
gence or  their  piety.  I  would  judge  no  man,  I  would 
unchurch  no  man.  I  would  decide  nothing  concern- 
ing the  efficacy  of  a  ministry  which  I  may  deem  to  be 
invalid,  nor  concerning  the  benefits  which  may  be  at- 
tendant on  irregular  or  defective  ministrations.  It  is 
the  prerogative  of  God  alone,  who  knows  what  allow- 
ance may  be  made  for  ignorance,  pride,  or  prejudice, 
to  determine  what  shall  be  the  consequences  to  any 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  335 

man,  of  the  errors  he  commits,  —  whether  those  errors 
be  voluntary  or  involuntary.  But,  my  brethren,  it  is 
the  duty  of  all  men  to  seek  the  truth,  and  to  main- 
tain it.  And,  for  ourselves,  it  has  been  made  our  spe- 
cial care  c  with  all  faithful  diligence,  to  banish  and 
drive  away  from  the  Church  all  erroneous  and  strange 
doctrines  contrary  to  God's  word.'  Errors  in  religion, 
whether  they  relate  to  the  theory  or  to  the  practice 
of  it,  are  not  only  hazardous  to  those  who  embrace 
them,  but  they  are  injurious  to  the  cause  of  religion 
itself.  All  the  writings  of  infidels  have,  perhaps,  done 
less  to  injure  the  cause  of  Christianity,  than  the  here- 
sies and  schisms  which  have  rent  the  Church,  the 
multiplicity  of  sects  which  have  arisen,  and  the 
hatred,  the  fanaticism,  and  the  extravagances  by 
which  they  have  been  attended."  l 

The  errors  of  the  day  and  the  animating  discussions 
which  sprung  from  the  Oxford  Tracts  did  not  prevent 
the  erection  of  new  churches  and  the  formation  of 
new  parishes.  The  Diocese  steadily  advanced  in  pros- 
perity, and  larger  edifices,  built  of  wood  to  take  the 
place  of  the  old  ones,  were  consecrated  about  this 
time  for  St.  Paul's  parish,  Norwalk,  St.  John's,  Stam- 
ford, and  St.  Stephen's,  Ridgefield.  A  new  church  was 
also  consecrated  in  the  spring  of  1842,  for  the  parish 
at  Poquetannock,  in  the  town  of  Preston,  —  a  parish 
representing  the  old  Church  in  North  Groton,  which 
was  among  the  earliest  of  those  organized  in  the  Col- 
ony before  the  Revolution.2     During  the  same  year  a 

1  Pages  32,  33. 

2  The  church  originally  stood  about  four  miles  south  of  the  present  edi- 
fice, but,  before  the  Revolution,  in  order  to  accommodate  the  parishioners, 
the  venerable  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  as  appears  from 
a  "  letter  for  that  purpose,"  permitted  it  to  be  removed  to  any  place  in  the 


336  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

"spacious  granite  church"  was  built  by  St.  James's 
parish,  Derby,  and  small  edifices  of  wood  rose  in  the 
villages  of  Glenville1  (Greenwich),  and  Zoar  (New- 
town). But  there  were  better  evidences  than  these 
of  the  increase  of  the  Church.  New  parishes,  which 
have  since  been  blessed  with  prosperity,  were  formed 
in  Hartford,  West  Hartford,  Fair  Haven,  Wolcottville, 
and  Windsor.  St.  John's  parish,  Hartford,  sprung  from 
the  superabundant  growth  of  Christ  Church  in  that 
city,  and  immediately  erected  for  itself,  in  a  central 
position,  what  was  called  at  the  time,  "a  beautiful 
structure  "  of  Portland  stone.  When  it  was  conse- 
crated in  the  spring  of  1842,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Burgess, 
then  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  preached  the  ser- 
mon, —  a  brief  extract  from  which  will  show  the  need 
of  a  second  parochial  organization  :  — 

"  It  is  not  yet  thirteen  years  since  the  festival  of 

town  of  Groton.  It  was  accordingly  removed  to  the  village  of  Poque- 
tannock  ;  and,  to  keep  to  the  letter  of  the  permission,  was  "  placed  so  that 
the  north  side  of  the  building  coincided  with  the  boundary  line  between 
Groton  and  Preston,  the  building  wholly  standing  in  Groton  (now  Led- 
yard),  but  touching  Preston  on  its  north  side." 

The  Revolutionary  AVar  broke  up  the  congregation,  and  the  church  went 
to  decay.  Occasional  services  were  afterwards  held  in  it,  and  it  remained, 
as  its  successor  still  remains,  the  only  house  of  public  worship  in  Poque- 
tannock.  Ammi  Rogers  appeared  among  the  people  in  1815,  and,  being 
accepted  as  their  minister,  persuaded  them  to  repair  the  church,  but,  in 
doing  this,  it  passed  from  the  control  of  the  parish  and  became  the  prop- 
erty of  individuals,  other  denominations  having  a  right  to  use  it  when  not 
needed  by  the  Episcopalians.  Subsequently  different  Episcopal  clergymen 
officiated  there,  and,  in  1839,  the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  Dexter  Potter  com- 
menced. He  succeeded  in  accomplishing  the  erection  of  a  new  church, 
which  is  located  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  east  of  the  old  one,  and  within 
the  limits  of  the  town  of  Preston. 

t  That  at  Glenville  was  due  to  the  munificence  of  a  single  individual 
(Mr.  Samuel  G.  Cornell),  who  conveyed  it  by  deed  to  the  Bishop  of  the 
Diocese,  and  his  successors  in  office,  in  trust  for  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  337 

Christmas  was  made  more  joyful  by  the  consecration 
of  that  Church  which  now  bears  the  name  of  Christ ; 
and  we  are  here  met,  in  the  season  of  His  death  and 
resurrection,  to  dedicate  this  by  the  name  of  that 
Apostle  who,  of  all  Christian  men,  was  last  at  the 
cross,  and  earliest  at  the  grave.  The  parish  register 
of  burials  may,  perhaps,  better  than  any  other  record, 
display  the  actual  increase  in  the  number  of  persons 
who  are  to  be  furnished  with  the  means  of  our  wor- 
ship. In  1811,  the  year  at  which  this  register  com- 
mences, there  were  four  burials ;  in  1841  there  were 
forty-four.  The  regularity  of  increase  may  also  be 
seen  in  the  annual  numbers  of  burials  for  a  course  of 
years ;  which  were  in  their  order,  beginning  with 
1832,  thirteen,  sixteen,  twenty-five,  twenty-three, 
thirty-one,  twenty-two,  twenty-seven,  thirty-five,  thir- 
ty-four, forty-four ;  and  in  the  present  year,  already 
fourteen,  more  than  the  whole  number  ten  years  ago. 
"No  signal  event,  then,  has  marked  the  history  of 
our  Church  in  this  city,  except  such  as  has  proceeded 
from  its  ripening  vigor.  No  memorable  struggle,  no 
happy  accident  has  filled  its  places  of  worship,  till  it 
demanded  first  a  larger,  and  then  another.  It  has  but 
grown  as  bodies  grow,  Avhich  have  a  healthful  life  in 
their  heart  and  their  members.  It  has  but  received 
that  place  in  the  regard  of  men,  which  their  impartial 
judgment  and  enlightened  conscience  must  always,  in 
the  end,  allow  to  truth,  to  unity,  and  to  order.  These 
are  the  principles  on  which  it  has  sustained  itself,  and 
must  sustain  itself  under  the  help  of  its  Redeemer." l 

1  Pages  7,  8. 
vol.  II.  22 


338  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

INCREASE  IN  THE  NUMBER  OF  CLERGY;  MOVEMENT  FOR  AN  AS- 
SISTANT BISHOP  ;  DEATH  OF  REV.  ASHBEL  BALDWIN  ;  AND 
IMPROVED  STYLE   OF  ECCLESIASTICAL   ARCHITECTURE. 

a.  d.  1843-1848. 

Full  one  hundred  clergymen  were  now  residing  in 
the  Diocese,  but  not  more  than  seventy-five  of  them 
were  engaged  in  active  parochial  work.  Some  of  the 
remainder  were  prevented  by  age  and  infirmity  from 
officiating,  and  others  were  employed  as  instructors 
in  public  and  private  seminaries  of  learning.  The 
parishes  also  numbered  nearly  one  hundred,  and  con- 
sequently, the  smaller  ones  were  obliged  to  continue 
united  in  cures  or  else  have  no  stated  ministrations. 
Though  the  list  of  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  rose 
from  fourteen  in  1843  to  thirty -one  in  1845,  yet  the 
growth  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  was  such  as  to 
require  the  services  of  all,  and  the  parishes,  which  had 
been  nursed  with  the  bounty  of  the  Christian  Knowl- 
edge Society,  were  fast  becoming  self-supporting.  All, 
however,  did  not  remain  in  the  Diocese,  —  many,  as 
heretofore,  being  drawn  to  fields  of  usefulness  outside 
of  it,  where  the  prospect  of  pecuniary  support  was 
better,  and  pastoral  toils  no  more  exacting. 

An  increase  in  the  number  of  its  clergy  does  not 
necessarily  prove  the  prosperity  of  a  Diocese.  Inter- 
nal troubles  and  theological  controversies  may  check 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  339 

its  advancement,  and  give  to  the  enemies  of  Chris- 
tianity occasion  to  triumph  in  their  ungodliness.  But 
Connecticut  was  happily  free  from  evils  of  this  sort, 
and  furnished  few  incidents,  at  this  period,  to  excite 
extraordinary  interest.  The  condition  of  the  Diocese 
was  well  described  in  the  "  Report  on  the  State  of  the 
Church,"  made  to  the  General  Convention  in  1844, 
and  compiled  from  documents  supplied  by  the  different 
delegations  which  composed  that  body. 

**  The  Church  in  Connecticut  is  now,  as  heretofore, 
at  unity,  and  being  strictly  conservative  in  spirit,  is  in 
little  danger  of  being  seriously  affected  by  unprofit- 
able contentions.  With  reasonable  and  allowable  dif- 
ferences of  opinion  on  questions  of  policy  and  expe- 
diency, there  is  no  diversity  of  sentiment  with  regard 
to  the  great  principles  of  Christian  doctrine  and  ec- 
clesiastical polity.  The  mutual  confidence  subsisting 
between  the  clergy  and  laity  and  their  Bishop,  pre- 
sents a  beautiful  exemplification  of  the  tendency  of 
our  system,  and  the  soundness  of  our  principles.  In 
no  part  of  the  Union  has  the  Church  been  so  rudely, 
unjustly,  and  unscrupulously  assailed.  But  the  hostile 
shafts  have  fallen  harmless ;  and  her  steady  progress 
affords  satisfactory  proof  that  she  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  such  an  unsanctified  warfare,  and  that,  so  long  as 
these  assaults  shall  stimulate  men  to  examine  her 
standards  and  her  bulwarks,  they  will  only  tend  to 
enlarge  her  borders  and  increase  her  prosperity." 

The  interest  of  the  laity  in  the  progress  of  the 
Diocese  was  shown,  as  in  other  ways,  so,  especially,  by 
the  more  general  attendance  of  their  delegates  npon 
the  annual  conventions.  The  new  parishes  were  rare- 
ly unrepresented,  and  in  the  older  organizations,  where 


340  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

it  had  once  been  accounted  somewhat  of  a  burden,  it 
was  beginning  to  be  esteemed  a  privilege  to  be  chosen 
a  delegate.  Besides,  it  was  a  sign  of  deadness  or  in- 
difference to  be  unrepresented,  and  hence,  at  the 
Easter  meetings  of  the  parishes,  when  vestries  were 
elected,  and  all  important  business  transacted,  men 
were  appointed  to  this  office  who  would  be  pretty  sure 
to  attend.  In  1844,  the  Annual  Convention  was  held 
in  New  Haven,  and  the  Rev.  A.  Cleveland  Coxe,  then 
Rector1  of  the  new  parish  in  Hartford  (St.  John's), 
preached  the  sermon.  Seventy-two  clergymen  and 
eighty-six  lay  delegates  were  present,  and  on  the 
same  occasion,  the  next  year,  more  than  one  hundred 
of  the  latter  order  were  in  attendance.  This  increase 
marked  the  growth  of  the  Church  in  the  Diocese,  for, 
by  the  Constitution,  each  parish  in  union  with  the 
Convention  was  entitled  to  a  representation  by  one 
lay  delegate,  and,  if  it  contained  "more  than  fifty 
families,  by  two,"  and  parishes  "  composed  of  two  or 
more  congregations,  having  a  corresponding  number 
of  church  edifices,''  were  entitled  to  a  "  representation 
from  each  of  such  congregations,  as  from  so  many 
distinct  parishes." 

Dr.  Brownell  had  been  in  the  office  of  the  Episco- 
pate for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and,  during  that 
period,  he  had  ordained  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
deacons,  one  hundred  and  twenty  priests,  consecrated 
sixty-six  churches,  and  confirmed,  in  Connecticut, 
eleven  thousand  three  hundred  and  fifty-three  per- 
sons. While  such  tokens  of  spiritual  progress  glad- 
dened him,  he  could  not  but  see  that  the  generation 
which  welcomed  him  to  the  Diocese  was  rapidly  pass- 

1  Now  Bishop  of  Western  New  York. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  341 

ing  away.  Four  of  the  clergy  only,  who  were  pres- 
ent as  members  of  the  Convention  of  1844,  had  par- 
ticipated in  his  election,  and  one  of  these  wras  the 
venerable  Burhans,  ordained  by  the  first  Bishop  of 
Connecticut. 

The  rest  of  the  members,  both  clerical  and  lay,  be- 
longed to  a  new  generation,  and  the  Bishop  already 
appeared  among  them  as  a  patriarch  among  his  de- 
scendants. Age  and  infirmity  had  produced  their 
debilitating  effect  upon  his  constitution,  and  he  was 
beginning  to  feel  the  need  of  some  relief  from  the 
burden,  which  "  the  care  of  all  the  churches  "  in  the 
Diocese  brought  upon  him.  He  found  it  necessary  to 
depend,  for  the  most  part,  upon  his  clergy  to  preach 
for  him,  and  frequently  a  presbyter  was  taken  into  his 
company  for  this  purpose  when  he  started  on  a  visita- 
tion. Even  with  this  assistance,  the  state  of  his  health 
was  not  always  equal  to  his  duties.  In  his  address  to 
the  Convention  of  1844,  he  said  :  — 

"  Owing  to  an  affection  of  my  eyes,  which  contin- 
ued through  the  past  winter,  and  which  threatened 
to  terminate  in  blindness,  I  was  advised  to  place 
myself  under  the  charge  of  an  eminent  physician  and 
oculist  in  the  city  of  New  York.  His  skilful  treat- 
ment, aided  by  the  divine  blessing  on  the  means,  has 
produced  a  great  mitigation  of  the  disease,  and  I  am 
encouraged  to  cherish  sanguine  hopes  of  the  ultimate 
recovery  of  my  sight.  But  the  arrangements  which 
I  had  proposed  for  Episcopal  services  through  the 
spring  have  been  almost  entirely  frustrated,  and  it  is 
probable  that  several  months  must  yet  elapse  before  I 
shall  be  able  to  use  my  eyes  for  reading  or  writing." 

Though  he  was  afterwards  restored,  in  a  measure,  to 


342  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

his  former  health  and  able  to  resume  his  duties,  the 
subject  of  permanent  relief  in  the  Episcopal  office  oc- 
cupied much  of  his  attention,  and,  while  on  his  visita,- 
tions  the  next  year,  he  conversed  freely  with  leading 
clergymen  and  laymen  as  to  the  expediency  of  apply- 
ing for  the  election  of  an  assistant  bishop.  Delegates, 
therefore,  went  to  the  Annual  Convention  which  met 
at  Hartford  in  1845,  fully  persuaded  that  the  matter 
would  be  introduced,  and  acted  upon  with  due  delib- 
eration. But  prior  to  the  meeting,  it  had  been  dis- 
covered, that  if  an  election  was  pressed,  the  candidate 
whom  the  Bishop  might  prefer,  would  not  be  the  only 
one  whose  name  would  be  brought  forward,  and  there 
was  danger  that  the  choice  of  the  clergy  would  fall 
upon  some  presbyter  whose  respectable  support  the 
Diocese  would  be  indisposed  to  provide  for,  —  at  least, 
so  long  as  it  was  still  indebted  to  the  Bishop,  for  arrear- 
ages of  salary  and  interest,  in  the  sum  of  nearly  four 
thousand  five  hundred  dollars.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, he  would  have  been  quite  willing  to  relin- 
quish the  subject  for  the  time;  but  he  had  gone  too  far 
in  his  consultations  to  do  this,  and  therefore  he  closed 
his  address  with  cautious  words,  and  left  the  responsi- 
bility of  further  action,  where  it  properly  belonged,  to 
the  Convention :  — 

"  In  concluding  this  address,  I  have  to  bring  before 
you  a  subject  which  cannot  fail  to  be  regarded  with 
deep  solicitude  by  yourselves  and  by  me.  It  is  known 
to  many  of  you  that,  on  account  of  permanent  bodily 
infirmities,  I  have  contemplated  applying  to  the  Con- 
vention for  the  election  of  an  assistant  bishop.  Those 
of  my  brethren  to  whom  I  have  mentioned  this  sub- 
ject, have  received   the    proposition   in  a  way  very 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  343 

grateful  to  my  feelings,  while  they  have  generally  ex- 
pressed a  wish  that  the  measure  might  be  deferred  as 
long  as  practicable.  The  expression  of  this  sentiment, 
in  connection  with  the  consideration  that,  for  the  last 
few  weeks,  my  general  health  has  been  greatly  im- 
proved, had  almost  determined  me  to  defer  the  prop- 
osition for  another  year.  But  further  consideration 
admonishes  me  that  the  bodily  infirmities  to  which  I 
have  alluded  are  of  a  permanent  character,  and  that  I 
cannot  count,  with  any  confidence,  on  the  continuance 
of  the  degree  of  health  which  I  now  enjoy. 

"  Under  these  considerations,  I  beg  leave  to  refer  the 
consideration  of  the  election  of  an  assistant  bishop 
to  the  free  discretion  of  the  Convention.  Whatever 
measure  of  health  and  strength  may  be  vouchsafed  to 
me  by  Divine  Providence,  I  shall  cheerfully  devote  to 
the  service  of  the  Church.  But  if  my  brethren  of  the 
clergy  and  of  the  laity  shall  be  of  opinion  that  the 
Diocese  is  likely  to  suffer  for  the  want  of  a  more  effi- 
cient superintendence,  it  is  my  desire  that  the  Con- 
vention should  proceed  to  the  election  of  an  assistant 
bishop,  either  at  the  present  session,  or  at  such  other 
time  as  their  judgment  may  deem  expedient." 

This  part  of  the  address  was  referred  to  a  special 
committee  of  seven,  —  four  clergymen  and  three  lay- 
men,— with  instructions  to  confer  with  the  Bishop,  and 
report  to  the  Convention  in  the  afternoon  of  the  same 
day.  The  result  was  adverse  to  the  agitation  of  the 
subject.  In  consideration  of  the  improved  health  of 
Dr.  Brownell,  and  of  the  want  of  means  to  sustain  an 
assistant,  the  committee  reported  that  it  was  inexpe- 
dient to  proceed  to  an  election ;  and  the  Convention, 
with   entire   unanimity,  adopted  a  resolution  to  this 


344  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

effect,  and  even  declined  to  authorize  any  measures  to 
provide  for  the  future  support  of  an  assistant  bishop. 
As  early  as  1821,  a  movement  was  made  to  estab- 
lish in  the  Diocese  a  society  to  be  called  the  "  Society 
for  the  Relief  of  Decayed  Clergymen  and  the  Neces- 
sitous Widows  and  Orphans  of  Clergymen."  It  orig- 
inated in  a  Convocation  held  at  Waterbury  on  the  day 
previous  to  the  Annual  Convention  of  that  year,  and 
a  constitution  for  the  Society  was  then  presented  and 
discussed,  and  definite  action  upon  it  postponed  to  a 
future  meeting.  Two  years  later  a  more  voluminous 
plan,  with  accompanying  forms  for  bequests,  was  sub- 
stituted, which  limited  relief  to  "  the  widows  and  chil- 
dren of  the  clergy  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
in  Connecticut ; "  but  it  was  unacceptable  to  the  Con- 
vocation, and  the  whole  matter  was  finally  dropped, 
and  no  earnest  efforts  again  put  forth  in  the  direction 
of  this  chanty  until  1845.  In  that  year  both  orders 
resumed  it,  and  it  was  voted  "  as  the  sense  of  the  Con- 
vention, that  aged  and  infirm  clergymen,  who  may  be 
destitute  of  the  means  of  support  .  .  .  have  pe- 
culiar claims  upon  the  sympathies  and  aid  of  the 
Church  which  they  have  served."  Out  of  this  resolu- 
tion arose  a  canon  which  made  it  the  duty  of  every 
parish  to  contribute  annually  towards  a  fund  to  be 
applied,  under  the  direction  of  the  Bishop  and  Stand- 
ing Committee,  for  the  relief  of  destitute  and  disabled 
clergymen,  and  of  widows  of  clergymen  belonging 
to  the  Diocese,  who  might  need  pecuniary  assistance. 
The  charity  commended  itself  to  the  generous  con- 
sideration of  the  parishes,  and  the  fund,  besides  afford- 
ing suitable  relief  in  the  cases  which  had  arisen,  soon 
accumulated  to  such  an  extent  that  it  was   deemed 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  345 

proper  to  provide  a  separate  board  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  Diocese,  for  its  custody,  management,  and 
disbursement.  Corporate  powers  and  privileges  were, 
therefore,  solicited,  and  it  was  chartered  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  in  1855,  by  the  name  of  "The  Trustees 
of  the  Aged  and  Infirm  Clergy  and  Widows'  Fund." 

But  the  organization  was  too  late  to  render  assist- 
ance to  the  needy  among  that  class  of  clergymen 
who  bore  an  important  part  in  sustaining  the  princi- 
ples and  advancing  the  prosperity  of  the  Church 
under  the  first  and  second  Bishops  of  Connecticut. 
The  number  of  these  venerable  presbyters  was  rapid- 
ly diminishing,  and  the  last  survivor  —  Rev.  Ashbel 
Baldwin  —  of  those  admitted  to  Holy  Orders  by 
Bishop  Seabury,  at  the  first  ordination  held  in  the 
United  States,  died  February,  1846,  lacking  one  month 
to  complete  a  pilgrimage  of  eighty-nine  years.  He 
was  born  in  Litchfield,  of  Congregational  parents,  and 
graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1776,  without  changing 
the  religious  belief  in  which  he  had  been  reared.  He 
held  for  some  time,  during  the  Revolutionary  War,  the 
appointment  of  a  quartermaster  in  the  Continental 
Army,  and  received  a  pension  from  the  Government, 
which  was  his  principal  means  of  support  in  his  latter 
days. 

The  story  of  his  conversion  to  Episcopacy  is  worth 
telling.  After  leaving  college,  he  engaged  himself, 
temporarily,  as  a  private  tutor  in  the  family  of  a  gen- 
tleman on  Long  Island.  The  family  belonged  to  the 
Church  of  England,  and,  at  that  date,  where  the  Epis- 
copal house  of  worship  was,  for  any  cause,  closed  on 
Sunday,  it  was  customary  for  the  stanchest  church- 
men to  turn  their  parlors  into  chapels,  and  have  the 


346  HISTORY   OF   THE    EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

regular  morning  service.  Mr.  Baldwin,  being  the  edu- 
cated member  of  the  household,  was  required  to  act 
as  the  family  lay  reader,  and,  ashamed  to  confess  his 
ignorance  of  the  Prayer  Book,  he  sought  the  aid  and 
friendship  of  the  gardener,  who  instructed  him  in  the 
use  of  the  "  Order  for  Morning  Prayer ;  "  and  soon  his 
love  and  admiration  of  the  Liturgy  and  conversion  to 
the  Church  followed.  Frequent  mentions  have  been 
made  of  him  in  the  previous  pages  of  this  work ;  but 
it  is  proper  to  add  that  he  was  a  man  of  more  than 
ordinary  talents,  ready,  cheerful,  and  the  lover  of  a 
good  joke,  in  which  the  clergy  of  his  time  often  in- 
dulged. He  was  small  in  stature,  and  walked  haltingly 
in  consequence  of  one  leg  being  shorter  than  the 
other,  occasioned  by  an  illness  in  boyhood  ;  yet  he  was 
nimble  in  his  movements  and  prompt  in  business. 
For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  he  served  the  Diocese  as 
Secretary  of  the  Convention,  as  member  of  the  Stand- 
ing Committee  and  delegate  to  the  General  Conven- 
tion, and  he  was  chosen  Secretary  in  the  Lower  House 
of  the  latter  body  for  six  triennial  sessions,  when  he 
declined  a  reelection.  Though  not  the  most  careful 
keeper  of  records,  he  was  familiar  with  the  forms  of 
ecclesiastical  legislation,  and  understood  the  details  of 
the  organization  of  the  Church  and  its  institutions  in 
Connecticut  better,  perhaps,  than  any  of  his  contem- 
poraries. He  was,  withal,  an  attractive  reader  of  the 
Liturgy  and  a  faithful  preacher  of  the  Gospel.  His 
distinct  enunciation  added  much  to  the  force  of  his 
clear  and  instructive  discourses,  and  the  educated,  as 
well  as  the  uneducated,  heard  him  with  pleasure  and 
profit.  On  the  day  of  the  Annual  Convention  of  1837? 
he  was  at  Stratford,  and  addressed  a  letter  to  Bishop 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  347 

Brownell,  taking  an  affectionate  leave  of  that  body, 
and  resigning  to  it  the  only  office  of  trust  in  its  gift 
which  he  had  continued  to  hold.  The  reading  of  the 
letter  produced  a  deep  feeling  in  the  Convention,  and 
it  is  given  here  in  full,  because  it  is  so  characteristic  of 
the  man,  so  chaste,  so  exquisitely  beautiful  in  its  style, 
and  so  pathetic  in  its  allusions. 

"  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir  :  I  was  much  pleased  to  learn 
that  the  Convention  would  be  holden  in  New  Haven 
this  summer ;  as  my  present  stay  would  be  so  near, 
that  I  might  possibly  be  able  once  more  to  meet  with 
my  brethren.  I  had  made  arrangements  to  do  so. 
But  in  that  I  am  much  disappointed,  as  the  weather 
is  such  that  I  dare  not  venture  abroad.  The  least 
cold  affects  my  eyes  immediately  and  produces  much 
pain.  In  addition  to  an  earnest  desire  once  more  to 
meet  my  clerical  and  lay  brethren,  I  wished  to  be  pres- 
ent at  this  annual  meeting,  for  the  purpose  of  resign- 
ing my  office  of  Trustee  of  the  Episcopal  Academy. 
I  was  made  one  of  the  Trustees  of  that  Institution  at 
its  first  organization,  and  for  many  years  I  never 
failed  to  attend  its  meetings ;  but,  for  several  years 
past,  my  health  has  been  so  bad,  that  it  has  not  been 
in  my  power  to  attend  to  any  of  its  concerns.  Will 
you  have  the  goodness,  sir,  to  present  me  very  affec- 
tionately to  the  members  of  the  Convention,  and  re- 
quest them  to  accept  my  resignation  ? 

"  My  dear  sir,  when  I  first  entered  the  Church,  its 
condition  was  not  very  flattering.  Surrounded  by 
enemies  on  every  side  and  opposed  with  much  viru- 
lence, her  safety  and  even  her  very  existence  were,  at 
times,  somewhat  questionable  ;  but  by  the  united  and 
zealous  exertions  of  the  clergy,  attended  by  the  bless- 


348  HISTORY  OF  THE   EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

ings  of  her  great  Founder,  she  has  been  preserved  in 
safety  through  every  storm,  and  now  presents  herself 
with  astonishment  to  every  beholder,  not  as  a  grain 
of  mustard  seed,  but  as  a  beautiful  tree,  spreading  its 
salubrious  branches  over  our  whole  country.  The 
Church,  by  a  strict  adherence  to  its  ancient  land- 
marks, its  priesthood,  its  liturgy,  and  its  government, 
has  been  preserved  from  those  schisms  which  seem  to 
threaten  the  peace  of  a  very  respectable  body  of 
Christians  in  our  country.  May  the  same  unanimity 
and  zeal  which  animated  our  fathers  still  be  preserved 
in  the  Church.  My  days  of  pilgrimage,  I  know,  are 
almost  closed,  and  I  can  do  no  more  than  to  be  in 
readiness,  by  the  grace  of  God,  to  leave  the  Church 
militant  in  peace.  May  I  be  permitted,  sir,  to  ask  the 
prayers  of  my  Bishop  and  his  clergy,  that  my  last 
days  may  be  happy. 

"  That  your  present  meeting  may  eventuate  in 
much  good  to  the  Church,  is  the  sincere  wish  and 
fervent  prayer  of  your  friend  and  brother  in  Christ.".1 

Four  new  parishes  were  admitted  into  union  with 
the  Convention  in  1845,  but  two  of  them  were  only 
developments  into  independency  of  the  congrega- 
tions which  had  worshipped  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel,  New 
Haven,  and  St.  Thomas's  Chapel,  Bethel.  Dr.  Cros- 
well,  the  Rector  of  Trinity  Parish,  did  not  take  the 
same  view  about  permitting  St.  Paul's  Chapel  to  sep- 
arate from  the  mother  church,  which  was  entertained 
by  the  majority  of  his  parishioners.  He  regarded  the 
movement  as  a  "suicidal  measure,"  and  would  have 
preferred  that  those  who  advocated  it  the  most  strong- 
ly, should  unite  in  a  new  organization  and  proceed  to 

!MS.  Letter. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  349 

the  erection  of  another  house  of  worship.  It  was  the 
natural  feeling  of  an  aged  pastor.  He  desired  to  re- 
tain his  cure  unbroken  to  the  last ;  and  those  who 
joined  him  in  opposition  to  the  proposed  scheme, 
were  governed  more  by  a  regard  to  his  wishes  than 
by  a  conviction  that  the  time  had  not  yet  come  for  a 
separation.  The  new  parish  started  at  once  upon  a 
career  of  vigorous  prosperity,  —  not  being  under  the 
necessity  of  waiting  to  gather  a  congregation  and  to 
become  consolidated  and  self-reliant.  The  church  was 
remodelled,  and  extensive  alterations  made  in  it,  at  a 
cost  of  several  thousand  dollars,  before  the  first  Rec- 
tor, Rev.  Samuel  Cooke,  removed  to  New  Haven  to 
enter  upon  his  duties. 

A  week  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Convention 
in  1845,  St.  James's  Church,  Fair  Haven,  built  of 
brown  stone,  quarried  in  the  vicinity,  was  consecrated ; 
and  also,  at  later  dates,  new  churches  of  wood  in  the 
ancient  parishes  of  Northford  and  Wallingford,  —  all 
of  such  appropriateness  and  ample  dimensions,  that 
the  Bishop,  in  speaking  of  them  in  his  annual  address 
for  the  next  year,  was  led  to  "  congratulate  the  Dio- 
cese on  the  greatly  improved  style  of  church  archi- 
tecture which  had  been  manifested  within  the  last  few 
years."  Edifices  of  stone  at  Canaan,  and  in  the  new 
parish  at  Broad  Brook,  and  another  constructed  of 
wood  to  take  the  place  of  the  old  church  at  Tashua, 
which  had  been  standing  for  upwards  of  half  a  cen- 
tury, were  added  to  the  list  of  consecrated  churches 
in  the  Diocese,  not  many  months  afterwards.  Grace 
Church,  Long  Hill,  —  where  a  house  of  worship  was 
begun  in  1836,  —  continued,  for  ten  years,  a  part  of 
the  parish  at  Tashua,  when  it  was  admitted  into  union 


350  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

with  the  Convention  as  a  separate  organization.  At 
Nichols's  Farms,  another  village  in  the  town  of  Trum- 
bull;, a  new  parish  was  formed,  and  a  new  wooden 
church  built  in  1848.  The  era  of  a  better  order 
of  ecclesiastical  architecture  had,  indeed,  now  com- 
menced. The  improved  taste  of  the  day  called  for 
more  beauty  and  fitness  of  expression  in  the  house  of 
God,  and,  instead  of  leaving  it  to  builders  to  be  guided 
by  their  own  fancy,  or  to  follow  the  model  of  the  old 
structures,  skilled  and  professional  architects  were  em- 
ployed to  furnish  designs  for  new  churches,  and  to 
have  a  general  oversight  of  their  erection.  A  spa- 
cious and  elaborate  edifice,  with  a  chapel  annexed, 
built  of  granite  from  the  neighboring  hills,  was  begun 
by  St.  John's  Parish,  Waterbury,  in  the  spring  of  1846, 
and  finished  and  consecrated  in  the  second  week  of 
January,  1848.  The  growth  of  the  town  and  of  the 
congregation  in  numbers  and  wealth,  called  for  this 
generous  outlay,  and  it  was  cheerfully  met  by  a  peo- 
ple who  have  since  been  liberal  in  good  deeds,  and  un- 
ceasing in  their  support  of  missions  at  home  and 
abroad. 

But  two  new  churches  of  freestone,  to  be  "more 
artistic  and  imposing  than  that  at  Waterbury,"  were 
already  started,  one  in  Norwich,  and  the  other  in  New 
London.  The  plans  were  obtained  from  a  New  York 
architect,1  and  as  these  churches,  when  completed, 
were  the  most  costly  in  the  Diocese,  so  they  were 
really  the  first  into  which  the  deep  chancels  and  a 
high  degree  of  decoration  and  adornment  were  intro- 
duced. The  arrangements  for  conducting  Divine  ser- 
vice were  made  with  an  eye  to  the  comfort  and  con- 

1  Mr.  Richard  Upjohn. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  351 

venience  of  the  officiating  clergy,  and  the  position  of 
the  Lord's  Table  and  the  whole  sacrarium  were  in- 
tended to  impress  Christian  worshippers  with  greater 
reverence  for  the  seat  of  the  Eucharistical  feast. 
Other  parishes,  with  less  wealth,  could  not  but  admire 
these  noble  specimens  of  a  better  style  of  architecture, 
but,  in  attempting  to  build  anew,  they  shrunk  from  in- 
curring such  expense,  and  were  content  to  sacrifice 
ornament  and  some  of  the  accessories  of  divine  wor- 
ship in  order  to  gain  churches  with  an  equal  number 
of  sittings. 

The  taste,  however,  for  pointed  windows,  and  the 
early  English  style,  was  extending  everywhere,  and 
building  committees  in  the  smallest  parishes  caught 
its  influence  and  proceeded  accordingly.  A  church  of 
unhewn  granite  for  the  new  parish  at  Stonington,  was 
begun  in  the  spring  of  1848,  and  the  corner-stone  of 
another  and  a  more  spacious  one,  to  be  built  of  free- 
stone, was  laid  in  the  ancient  parish  at  Meriden  on 
the  8th  of  June  in  the  same  year.1  In  this  year  also, 
the  congregation  at  New  Britain  had  prospered  so 
much  as  to  build  a  church,  "  capacious  in  its  dimen- 
sions and  distinguished  for  the  good  taste  of  its  archi- 

1 "  The  church  was  consecrated  by  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Brownell  on  the 
6th  of  February,  1850,  and  continued  to  be  used  for  public  worship  until 
Trinity  Sunday,  1866.  The  increase  of  the  population  in  the  western  and 
northern  parts  of  the  town,  and  the  necessity  of  providing  additional  ac- 
commodations for  the  parish,  have  rendered  necessary  the  erection  of  an- 
other and  a  larger  edifice.  .  .  .  The  corner-stone  of  this  third  house 
of  worship  for  the  parish  of  St.  Andrew's  Church,  is  laid  this  8th  day  of 
August,  1866,  by  the  Rt.  Rev'd  Father  in  God,  John  Williams,  D.  D., 
Bishop  of  the  Diocese."  —  Extract  from  the  Historical  Sketch,  MS.,  read  by 
the  Rector,  Rev.  G.  H.  Deshon,  at  the  ceremony  of  laying  the  stone. 

The  second  church  was  taken  down,  and  the  stone  used  in  building  the 
third,  an  edifice  of  much  architectural  beauty,  from  designs  by  Mr.  Henry 
Dudley  of  New  York.     It  was  consecrated  November  7th,  1867. 


352  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

tectural  arrangements ; "  and  about  the  same  time, 
mainly  through  the  missionary  exertions  of  the  clergy 
in  Litchfield  County,  a  parish  was  organized  at  Win- 
sted  and  a  house  of  worship  erected. 

This  outward  growth  of  the  Diocese  was  not  unac- 
companied by  signs  of  the  calm  and  pure  ardor  of  in- 
creasing piety.  The  comfort  and  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity were  visible  in  the  lives  of  those  who  had  been 
"  added  to  the  Church,"  and  the  clergy  and  the  "  con- 
gregations committed  to  their  charge  "  evinced,  with 
every  revolving  year,  a  deeper  interest  in  the  spread 
of  the  knowledge  which  makes  men  "  wise  unto  salva- 
tion." The  evil,  however,  of  clerical  changes  still  con- 
tinued, and  the  Bishop,  in  his  address  to  the  Annual 
Convention  of  1848,  said:  "It  is  almost  the  only  dis- 
couraging circumstance  in  the  condition  of  the  Dio- 
cese, that,  during  the  past  year,  these  changes  have 
been  more  numerous  than  usual."  Nine  clergymen 
had  removed  from  it  with  letters  dimissory,  and  six 
had  been  received.  Another  prominent  and  accom- 
plished presbyter  had  been  fixed  upon  for  a  higher 
position  in  the  Church,  and  his  separation  from  his 
parish  necessarily  followed. 

The  Rev.  George  Burgess,  D.  D.,  was  elected  Bishop 
of  Maine  and  consecrated  in  Christ  Church,  Hartford, 
of  which  he  had  been  the  Rector  for  thirteen  years, 
on  the  31st  of  October,  1847,  the  Rt.  Rev.  Philander 
Chase  of  Illinois,  being  the  senior  and  Presiding  Bish- 
op in  the  United  States,  and  acting  as  the  consecrator 
on  this  occasion. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  353 


CHAPTER   XXV. 

MISSIONARY  AND  CHARITABLE  CONTRIBUTIONS;  CONVENTION  AT 
NEW  LONDON;  ADDRESS  OF  THE  BISHOP  AND  TENDENCIES  TO 
ROMANISM. 

a.  d.  1848-1851. 

The  progress  of  the  Church  in  Connecticut  was 
shown  by  the  increasing  contributions  for  missionary 
and  charitable  purposes.  These,  as  reported  from 
sixty  parishes  in  1848,  amounted  to  upwards  of  ten 
thousand  dollars,  which  was  a  great  advance  from  the 
condition  and  feeling  of  the  Diocese  half  a  century 
before,  when  it  was  voted  in  convention  "that  the 
money  formerly  collected  for  the  purpose  of  sending 
missionaries  to  the  frontiers  of  the  States  be  applied 
to  the  benefit  of  the  Episcopal  Academy."  The  im- 
pulse given  to  the  missionary  cause  by  the  General 
Convention  of  1835,  and  the  new  agencies  then  in- 
augurated, had  helped  to  produce  this  improvement. 
But  another  reason  is  to  be  assigned  for  the  change. 
Many  of  the  parishes,  from  being  weak  and  dependent, 
had  now  become  strong,  self-supporting,  and  able  to 
contribute  to  outside  objects;  and  with  the  enlarge- 
ment of  their  prosperity  came  also  an  increase  in  the 
number  and  urgency  of  appeals  from  abroad  for  Chris- 
tian sympathy  and  assistance.  The  duty  of  greater 
efforts  for  the  support  of  Diocesan  Missions,  was 
pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the   Convention  from 

VOL.  II.  23 


354  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

year  to  year  by  the  Bishop,  and  if  there  had  not  been 
extensive  portions  of  the  State  where  the  services 
of  our  Church  were  yet  to  be  established,  the  appeals 
of  the  "  Domestic  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society " 
would  have  met  with  a  more  generous  consideration. 

In  1S49,  eighty-one  towns  and  villages  within  the 
Diocese  had  no  houses  of  Episcopal  worship,  and  no 
stated  ministrations  from  Episcopal  clergymen,  and 
one-half  of  these  localities  lay  east  of  the  Connecticut 
River,  where  the  Church  is  still  numerically  weak. 
Something  was  done  by  the  Convention  of  that  year 
to  awaken  more  interest  in  Diocesan  Missions,  and  a 
large  committee,  previously  appointed,  of  which  the 
Bishop  was  chairman,  in  reporting  on  their  state,  and 
the  means  of  their  future  support,  said  :  — 

"  The  strength  of  the  Diocese  is  such,  both  in  num- 
bers and  in  pecuniary  ability,  that  it  must  always  be 
competent  to  take  possession  of  every  new  point  to 
which  the  way  is  opened  for  the  introduction  of  the 
Church.  In  view  of  this  truth,  we  cannot  look  at  the 
unoccupied  ground  which  is  white  with  the  waving 
harvest,  without  feeling  that  we  have  been,  and  still 
are  sinfully  slothful ;  that,  as  a  people,  we  are  in  this, 
guilty  of  neglect  before  the  God  of  the  Church.  It 
is  certainly  not  to  our  credit  that  in  a  Diocese  so  old 
as  this,  and  of  such  limited  extent,  the  Church  should 
be  so  partially  known  as  it  is." 

The  Annual  Convention  of  1850  met  at  New  Lon- 
don on  the  festival  of  St.  Barnabas,  and  seventy-nine 
clergymen  and  fifty-six  lay  delegates  were  present. 
There  is  no  record  that  a  similar  meeting  had  ever 
been  held  in  the  same  place,  though  New  London  was 
the  residence  of  Bishop  Seabury,  and  the  scene  of  his 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  355 

latest  parochial  labors.  The  convenience  of  both 
clergy  and  laity  had  called  for  the  selection  of  more 
central  or  more  accessible  towns  in  which  to  hold  the 
annual  conventions,  and  complaint  was  sometimes 
made,  if  the  Bishop,  who  had  the  power  of  "  deter- 
mining "  upon  the  place  of  meeting,  chose  an  extreme 
part  of  the  Diocese.  But  this  was  an  extraordinary 
occasion,  and  the  Diocesan  Council  was  not  its  only 
attraction.  The  "  holy  and  beautiful  house "  which 
had  been  erected  by  the  ancient  parish  of  St.  James, 
and  which  contained,  in  one  of  the  divisions  of  the 
chancel,  the  remains  of  the  first  Bishop  of  Connecti- 
cut, and  a  monument  to  his  memory,1  was  now  to  be 
consecrated.  The  usual  services  before  convention, 
and  at  the  consecration,  were  blended  together,  and 
the  sermon  was  preached  by  the  Rev.  John  Williams, 
D.  D.,  then  President  of  Trinity  College,  having  been 
elected  to  that  position  on  the  retirement  of  Dr.  Tot- 
ten  in  1848.  The  sermon,  which  was  upon  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Holy  Trinity,  was  published  by  order  of 
the  Convention  and  distributed  with  the  Journal.  It 
contained  appropriate  references  to  Bishop  Seabury, 
and  cited  the  memorable  statement  that,  near  the 
close  of  his  ministry,  he  spoke  often  and  earnestly  to 
his  clergy  and  people  upon  that  mighty  mystery  of 
the  faith  which,  he  appeared  to  foresee,  would  one  day 
be  extensively  corrupted  and  denied  in  New  Eng- 
land.2 

Trinity  Church,  Norwich,  which  had  possessed  itself 
of  the  edifice  formerly  occupied  by  the  mother  parish 
in  that  city,  and  Trinity  Church,  Ansonia,  were  new 
parochial  organizations  received  into  union  with  the 

1  Vide  vol.  i.  pp.  440,  441.  »  Vol.  i.  p.  432. 


356  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Convention  at  this  session.  St.  Thomas's  Church,  New 
Haven,  had  been  admitted  two  years  earlier,  and,  hav- 
ing erected  a  commodious  chapel,  the  parish  was  be- 
ginning to  exhibit  signs  of  a  vigorous  prosperity. 
The  Bishop,  glancing  in  his  annual  address  at  the 
progress  of  the  Diocese,  said  :  — 

"We  have  witnessed  no  sudden  and  remarkable 
changes  ;  but  a  steady  increase  in  numbers,  strength, 
and  vitality,  has  marked  our  course  during  the  thirty 
years  that  I  have  been  permitted  to  minister  amongst 
you.  I  know  of  no  serious  difficulties  in  any  of  our 
parishes,  and  the  unity  of  sentiment,  and  harmony 
of  feeling,  which  have  so  long  characterized  the  clergy 
of  the  Diocese,  were  never  more  happily  exemplified 
than  at  the  present  time." 

But  he  could  not  take  the  same  cheering  view  of 
every  part  of  our  communion.  Some  unhappy  fruits 
had  sprung  from  the  theological  movement  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  fears  of  intelligent  churchmen  were  not 
a  little  excited  by  the  appearance  of  "  Romish  tenden- 
cies" among  certain  individuals  who  occupied  posi- 
tions of  influence  and  importance  in  the  Church. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  year  1849,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Jarvis,  with  the  approbation  of  his  Diocesan,  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  of  nearly  fifty  pages,  which  he  en- 
titled "  A  Voice  from  Connecticut,  occasioned  by  the 
late  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Bishop  of  North  Carolina," 
and  in  which  he  discussed  very  ably  and  learnedly 
"  the  power  of  priestly  absolution,  and  the  limits 
within  which  it  must  be  exe*rcised."  It  was  addressed 
to  Dr.  Ives,  whose  "Pastoral  Letter"  had  called  it 
forth,  and  whose  self-contradictions  and  doctrinal  un- 
soundness, as  manifested  on  several  recent  occasions, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  357 

had  given  pain  to  his  warmest  friends,  both  in  and 
out  of  his  Diocese. 

But  prior  to  this,  the  alarm  had  been  sounded,  and 
editorial  articles,  evidently  written  with  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  facts,  appeared  in  the  Church  periodical  of 
Connecticut,  stating  that  there  existed  a  "  Romanizing 
clique  "  in  the  city  of  New  York,  which  was  not  only 
disloyal  to  the  Anglican  Church  and  its  standard 
theology,  but  encouraged  a  practical  reception  of 
Popish  standards  of  doctrine  and  discipline.  The  arti- 
cles were  sharp,  and  intended  to  attract  attention  and 
challenge  replies.  One  of  them  closed  with  the  warn- 
ing — "  Let  churchmen  be  on  their  guard,  and  give 
the  first  symptom  of  this  kind  of  Jesuitism  its  im- 
mediate and  merited  rebuke.  We  venture  to  promise 
it  such  a  reception  if  it  intrudes  into  the  Diocese  of 
Connecticut.  We  love  our  Prayer-books  here  with  a 
loyal  and  virgin  love."  Attempts  to  justify  or  explain 
away  the  movements  of  the  Romanizers  were  unsuc- 
cessful, and  the  progress  of  events  showed  that  there 
was  too  much  reason  for  the  alarm  which  had  been 
given.  The  principal  part  of  the  address  of  Bishop 
Brownell  to  the  Convention  of  1850,  was  occupied 
with  the  subject,  and  because  his  counsels  are  highly 
salutary  and  applicable  to  the  times  in  which  we  live, 
as  to  all  times,  no  apology  need  be  offered  for  allow- 
ing them  to  fill  up  the  remainder  of  this  chapter. 
With  the  accompanying  action  of  the  Convention, 
they  form  an  important  passage  in  the  history  of  the 
Diocese. 

"  In  our  parent  country,  excitements  and  dissen- 
sions prevail;  and  there  have  been  some  defections 
from  the  faith  of  the  Church.     A  few  such  defections 


358  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

have  also  occurred  in  our  country.  But  though  these 
defections  are  much  to  be  deplored,  I  see  nothing  in 
them  to  occasion  serious  alarm,  in  regard  to  the  gen- 
eral soundness  of  the  Church.  The  number  of  the 
apostates  is  small  and  insignificant,  in  comparison 
with  the  great  body  of  churchmen  who  maintain 
.  their  integrity.  '  They  went  out  from  us,  because 
they  were  not  of  us.'  We  may  regret  their  secession, 
on  their  own  account ;  but  we  may  be  well  satisfied 
that  they  have  placed  themselves  in  a  position  where 
their  real  sentiments  are  known,  and  where  they  can 
no  longer  expect  to  corrupt  and  betray  their  brethren 
under  false  pretences.  If  their  defection  has  been  oc- 
casioned by  conscientious  conviction,  however  errone- 
ous such  conviction  may  be,  we  may  respect  and  pray 
for  them ;  but  we  cannot  exercise  the  same  charity  to- 
wards those  who  would  seek  to  Romanize  the  Church, 
while  they  remain  within  her  pale.  This  is  nothing 
less  than  treachery ;  and  the  clergyman  who  would 
persist  in  such  a  course,  is  false  to  his  vows.  Every 
clergyman,  at  his  Ordination,  solemnly  engages  to 
conform  to  the  doctrine,  as  well  as  worship,  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church ;  and  he  promises,  more- 
over, so  to  minister  that  doctrine,  'as  this  Church  hath 
received  the  same.'  He  well  knows  what  the  Church 
expects  from  him,  when  she  exacts  these  vows ;  and  if 
he  takes  them,  or  acts  under  them,  with  a  mental  res- 
ervation, and  resorts  to  the  subterfuge  of  giving  his 
own  private  interpretation  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  he  is  justly  chargeable  with  treachery  and 
falsehood.  If  he  begins  to  doubt  the  catholicity  of 
the  Church  in  which  he  ministers,  or  the  soundness  of 
her  faith,  let  him,  as  an  honest  man,  suspend  his  min- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  359 

istrations  till  his  doubts  are  solved.  And  if  he  be- 
lieves the  dictates  of  his  conscience  compel  him  pub- 
licly to  withdraw  from  her  communion,  let  him  depart 
in  peace,  under  his  responsibility  to  his  God.  What 
we  most  deprecate  is,  the  treachery  of  perverting  the 
doctrines  of  the  Church,  or  the  teaching  of  dogmas 
alien  to  her  faith,  while  ministering  at  her  altars. 
And  this  treachery  is  equally  to  be  censured,  in  what- 
ever direction  the  false  teaching  may  tend,  —  whether 
to  the  superstitions  of  Romanism,  or  to  the  coldness 
and  baldness  of  Rationalism. 

"  Doubtless  there  may  be  allowed  some  latitude  of 
construction,  in  the  explanation  of  our  doctrinal  stand- 
ards. But  the  discretion  must  be  exercised  with  the 
most  conscientious  caution  ;  and  no  individual  caprice 
should  go  beyond  the  general  understanding  of  the 
Church. 

"  Rationalism,  or  a  leaning  towards  Rationalism,  is, 
beyond  all  question,  the  prevailing  error  of  our  times 
and  country.  Its  influence,  indeed,  is  the  most  widely 
spread,  and  the  most  destructive,  among  the  religious 
denominations  by  whom  we  are  surrounded.  But  as 
our  Church  has  been  so  rapidly  increased  by  acces- 
sions from  these  denominations,  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered at  that  traces  of  its  influence  should  be  dis- 
cernible among  some  of  the  members  of  our  own  com- 
munion. This  influence,  however,  is  arrested  in  its 
proclivity  to  Infidelity,  and  is  steadily  fading  away, 
under  the  more  evangelical  teachings  and  worship  of 
the  Church. 

"  It  is  now  in  the  opposite  direction,  that  the  appre- 
hensions of  our  Church  seem  to  be  more  especially 
called  forth.     Several  of  her  clergy,  and  some  of  her 


360  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

laity  have  recently  seceded  to  the  Romish  faith ;  and 
yet  this  secession  is  not  the  principal  occasion  for  the 
alarm.  The  number  who  have  thus  seceded  is  insignif- 
icant in  comparison  with  those  who  yet  remain  be- 
hind, in  a  state  of  obvious  sympathy  with  the  feelings 
and  doctrines  of  those  who  have  departed.  These 
sympathizers,  and  not  the  seceders,  are  the  persons 
who  are  in  a  condition  to  make  proselytes  ;  and  who, 
if  they  put  forth  their  influence,  either  publicly  or  in 
private,  as  they  will  hardly  fail  to  do,  are  the  real 
traitors  of  the  Church. 

"  Asrainst  the  seductions  of  such,  it  behooves  all  the 
members  of  the  Church  to  be  constantly  on  their 
guard.  This  vigilance  is  more  specially  incumbent 
on  those  who  are  in  a  course  of  preparation  for  the 
exercise  of  the  sacred  ministry.  These  are  yet  in  the 
position  of  inquirers.  Their  minds  are  open  to  in- 
struction ;  and  they  have  not  yet  acquired  all  that 
knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  of  the  history  of  the 
Church,  which  is  necessary  to  enable  them  to  distin- 
guish between  plain  truth,  and  plausible  error.  In 
a  few  short  years,  too,  these  learners  are  to  become 
teachers  in  the  Church,  and  each  one  the  centre  of 
an  important  local  influence.  They  are  precisely  in 
the  situation  that  one  would  wish,  who  was  ambitious 
of  propagating  favorite  opinions,  and  of  making  pros- 
elytes. They  may  then  expect  to  be  addressed  per- 
sonally, or  through  the  medium  of  the  press,  by  those 
who  wish  to  give  a  more  Romish  character  to  the 
Church.  Under  such  circumstances,  a  watchful  cau- 
tion is  the  part  of  true  wisdom.  All  novelties  which 
are  proposed  should  be  received  with  distrust.  There 
are  too,  certain   doctrines   and   usages,  much   dwelt 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  361 

upon  by  the  class  of  persons  referred  to,  which, 
though  true  and  proper  under  certain  limitations, 
become  erroneous  when  they  are  distorted  or  pushed 
to  an  extreme. 

"  One  of  these,  which  holds  a  prominent  place,  and 
is  sometimes  made  to  perplex  the  unwary,  is  the 
doctrine  of  Catholic  Unity.  Doubtless  the  Universal 
Church  of  Christ,  holding  one  faith,  —  a  belief  in  the 
way  of  salvation  by  the  mediation  and  atonement  of 
the  Son  of  God ;  being  baptized  into  one  baptism,  — 
a  baptism  administered  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  all  the 
members  being  joined  together  in  one  body,  by  being 
thus  united  to  Christ  their  Head,  forms  'One  Holy 
Catholic  Church.'  But  the  Catholic  Unity  so  much 
talked  of,  is  something  more  vague  and  mysterious. 
Metaphysical  subtilties  are  resorted  to,  in  regard  to 
the  '  Notes  of  a  true  Church ; '  and  many  curious 
refinements  are  employed  in  reference  to  the  precise 
line  by  which  it  is  circumscribed.  A  visible  centre 
of  Unity,  too,  must  be  sought  after;  and  the  guide- 
posts  are  put  up  at  such  points  as  conduct  the  in- 
quirer only  to  the  Pope  of  Rome.  In  connection  with 
the  doctrine  of  Catholic  Unity,  the  English  Reforma- 
tion becomes  the  subject  of  unfavorable  comment 
and  severe  criticism.  The  licentiousness  of  Henry 
VIIL,  and  the  rapacity  of  his  time-serving  courtiers, 
are  held  up  to  just  reprobation ;  while  the  corruptions 
and  abuses  of  Romanism  which  were  rejected,  and  the 
pure  faith  of  primitive  Christianity  which  was  estab- 
lished, together  with  all  the  blessings  which  have 
flowed  to  mankind  from  that  Reformation,  seem  to  be 
studiously  forgotten. 


362  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

"  The  doctrines  of  Auricular  Confession,  and  Priestly 
Absolution,  are  also  .favorite  themes  with  the  abettors 
of  Romish  error.  The  duty  of  confessing  our  sins  to 
God  in  secret,  as  well  as  in  the  public  services  of  the 
Church  ;  and  the  agency  of  a  divinely  appointed  min- 
istry, in  proclaiming  God's  pardon  to  the  penitent, 
may  be  defended  by  'most  certain  warrant  of  Holy 
Scripture.'  The  confession  of  particular  sins  to  a 
spiritual  guide,  for  counsel  and  instruction,  is  also 
commended  in  certain  cases.  But  the  private  confes- 
sion of  every  particular  sin  to  a  priest,  and  the  procur- 
ing of  his  absolution  as  a  necessary  condition  of  God's 
pardon,  is  a  'fond  conceit'  of  Rome.  This  latter  view 
of  the  doctrine,  taken  in  connection  with  its  neces- 
sary adjuncts,  —  the  doctrines  of  Popish  penance,  of 
Purgatory,  and  of  Indulgences,  has  led  to  the  most 
overbearing  arrogation  of  priestly  power,  the  grossest 
tyranny  over  the  consciences  of  men,  and  the  most 
degrading  effects  upon  the  intelligence  and  morals  of 
society.  Such  doctrines  could  have  gained  footing  in 
the  world,  only  during  the  ignorance  and  superstition 
of  the  dark  ages.  They  could  receive  no  countenance 
in  the  present  age,  were  it  not  for  the  tinge  of  super- 
stition, and  the  love  of  ease,  which  are  so  congenial 
to  the  human  mind.  All  men  know  that  they  are  sin- 
ners before  God,  and  that  they  are  obnoxious  to  the 
penalties  which  he  has  made  consequent  on  guilt.  If, 
by  simply  confessing  his  sins  to  a  priest,  submitting 
to  the  mild  penance  he  may  enjoin,  and  receiving  his 
plenary  absolution,  a  man  can  believe  that  all  the 
guilt  of  his  past  life  is  cancelled,  to  be  remembered 
no  more,  and  that  he  is  entitled  to  the  reversion  of 
everlasting  felicity,  who  would  not  purchase  forgive- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  363 

ness  and  salvation  at  so  easy  a  rate  ?  And  if,  with  a 
conscience  thus  at  ease,  he  should,  again  fall  into  a 
sinful  course  of  life,  with  what  alacrity  would  he  again 
resort  to  the  same  efficacious  sponge,  to  wipe  away  the 
traces  of  his  guilt !  And  if,  in  worldly  matters,  the 
settlement  of  a  man's  accounts,  and  the  extinguish- 
ment of  his  debts,  afford  him  so  much  complacency, 
how  much  more  so  when  his  eternal  interests  are  con- 
cerned. But  God  has  chosen  a  different  way  for  the 
exercise  of  His  mercy  towards  mankind.  He  is,  indeed, 
ever  ready  to  pardon  and  save  all  who  are  sincerely 
penitent  for  their  sins,  who  gladly  embrace  the  way 
of  salvation  through  His  Son,  who  obediently  keep 
His  holy  laws,  and  who  walk  in  all  the  ordinances 
which  He  has  appointed  for  His  Church.  But  this  is 
a  way  of  salvation  which  demands  a  constant  and 
anxious  vigilance.  The  Christian  must  be  ever  so- 
licitous that  his  repentance  is  sufficiently  deep  and 
sincere,  that  his  faith  is  sufficiently  strong  and  ardent, 
and  that  his  obedience  springs  from  the  dictates  of  a 
heart  influenced  by  the  promptings  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
"The  performance  of  the  Ritual  of  our  Church,  is 
another  medium  through  which  tendencies  towards 
Romanism  may  be  encouraged.  Among  the  multi- 
tude of  ceremonial  observances  with  which  the 
Church  was  encumbered  previous  to  the  Reforma- 
tion, some  were  significant  of  important  truths,  some 
were  significant  of  pernicious  errors,  and  some  of 
mere  unfounded  superstitions.  It  was  the  object  of 
our  Reformers  to  free  her  from  all  such  observances 
as  did  not  conduce  to  the  decency  of  public  worship, 
and  to  the  maintenance  of  sound  doctrine.  This 
object  they  happily  accomplished.     The  Puritans  and 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

other  Dissenters  went  to  an  extreme  of  plainness,  in 
the  order  of  their  services  and  in  their  houses  of  wor- 
ship, alike  adverse  to  good  taste  and  propriety.  As 
one  extreme  begets  another,  there  are  those  in  our 
Church  who  would  carry  us  back  again  to  the  showy 
ceremonial  of  the  Romish  ritual.  They  may  be  in- 
fluenced partly  by  the  promptings  of  a  fanciful  tem- 
perament, but  are  probably  more  strongly  impelled 
by  a  love  of  certain  Romish  doctrines,  of  which  these 
ceremonies  are  the  exponents.  Symbolic  teaching 
was  a  mode  of  instruction  adopted  in  the  dark  ages, 
to  communicate,  through  the  medium  of  the  senses, 
that  which  could  not  be  so  readily  apprehended  by 
uneducated  intellects. 

"  It  may  now  be  the  policy  of  some  to  inculcate, 
by  signs,  doctrines  from  which  the  mind  would  revolt, 
if  presented  to  it  directly  and  plainly  in  words.  The 
sacrifice  of  the  mass,  after  the  manner  of  the  Romish 
priests,  is  pronounced,  by  Article  XXXI.  of  our 
Church,  to  be  a  '  blasphemous  fable,'  and  '  dangerous 
deceit.'  And  yet,  when  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  is  administered  at  her  altars,  the  priest  may 
perform  the  service  with  such  an  appearance  of  over- 
strained veneration  and  awe,  with  such  bowings,  and 
crossings,  and  genuflections,  as  plainly  to  symbolize 
the  doctrine  of  Transiibstantiation.  '  Let  all  things  be 
done  decently  and  in  order,'  is  the  precept  of  the 
Apostle.  This  precept  should  teach  us  to  avoid  all 
theatrical  display,  on  the  one  hand,  and  all  levity  or 
carelessness  on  the  other;  and  to  follow  a  middle 
course,  between  the  ostentatious  ceremonies  of  Rome, 
and  the  baldness  of  Dissent. 

"I  may  advert   to   one  characteristic  more,  which 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  365 

seems  generally  to  mark  the  admirers  of  Eomish  doc- 
trines and  institutions  ;  and  I  may,  perhaps,  best  do  it 
in  their  own  favorite  language  — l  a  yearning  after 
greater  holiness?  I  believe  such  professions  are  gen- 
erally made  in  great  sincerity.  But  there  is  much 
difference  between  a  mawkish  desire  and  an  earnest 
endeavor ;  between  romance  and  reality.  Young 
persons,  and  others  of  imaginative  temper,  who  have 
felt  the  hindrances  to  piety  and  devotion  which  are 
created  by  the  amusements  and  business  of  life,  often 
envy  the  seclusion  of  the  monastery  or  the  nunnery ; 
as  if  religious  affections  could  be  cultivated  only  in 
solitude.  And  as  such  seclusion  is  generally  unat- 
tainable, the  feeling  often  seeks  relief  in  the  perform- 
ance of  a  round  of  ceremonial  observances. 

"  The  indolence  and  corruption  which  was  brought 
to  light  at  the  breaking  up  of  the  monastic  institu- 
tions of  England,  has  demonstrated  that  such  institu- 
tions may  be  the  nurseries  of  vice,  as  well  as  of  piety. 
And  it  is  probable  that  the  like  institutions  now  exist- 
ing in  Europe,  would  hardly  be  found  in  a  better 
moral  condition. 

"  Pure  religion  is  founded  in  an  unfeigned  love  to 
God  and  to  mankind.  As  such,  it  must  be  an  active 
principle.  It  exhausts  not  itself  in  solitary  medita- 
tions, nor  in  elaborate  ceremonial  observances.  It  is 
best  demonstrated  by  sincere  devotion  in  the  public 
and  private  worship  of  God,  and  by  an  unfeigned 
obedience  to  all  the  Divine  commands,  while  pursu- 
ing the  active  duties  of  life.  He  who  is  earnestly 
engaged  in  the  performance  of  these  duties,  will  find 
abundant  scope  for  the  exercise  of  his  religious  affec- 
tions, without  the  l  strenuous  inertia '  of  counting  beads, 
or  a  yearning  after  —  he  knows  not  what. 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

"  Brethren  :  In  the  remarks  which  I  have  now  ad- 
dressed to  you,  you  must  be  aware  that  I  have  had  in 
my  mind  a  class  of  persons  who  are  desirous  of  assim- 
ilating the  character  of  our  Church  more  nearly  to 
that  of  Rome.  Their  numbers  I  do  not  pretend  to 
estimate,  though  I  am  well  convinced  of  the  existence 
of  such  a  class,  comprising  laymen  as  well  as  clergy- 
men. They  may  not,  and  probably  do  not,  all  enter- 
tain the  same  views  in  regard  to  the  changes  they 
would  effect.  Some  may  be  satisfied  with  holding  all 
Romish  doctrine,  as  matter  of  opinion,  and  yet  re- 
maining quietly  in  the  exercise  of  their  ministry. 
Others  have  been  determined  to  revolutionize  the 
Church,  or  to  quit  her  communion.  Some  have  al- 
ready abandoned  it;  more  may  follow.1  It  is  quite 
time,  then,  that  the  Church  should  be  on  her  guard. 


"  I  think  you  will  bear  me  witness  that  I  am  no  dis 


iThe  Rt.  Rev.  Levi  S.  Ives,  D.  D.,  Bishop  of  North  Carolina,  accom 
panied  his  wife  to  Europe  in  1852,  and  writing  from  Rome,  under  date  o: 
Dee.  22d  of  that  year,  to  the  Convention  of  his  Diocese,  he  resigned  into 
its  hands  his  office  of  Bishop,  and  further  stated  his  determination  to  sub- 
mit to  the  Roman  "  Catholic  Church."  The  "  doubts"  which  had  "  goaded 
him  at  times  to  the  very  borders  of  derangement,"'  have  "  grown,"  he  said, 
"  into  clear  and  settled  convictions  ;  so  clear  and  settled  that,  without  a 
violation  of  conscience  and  honor,  and  every  obligation  of  duty  to  God 
and  His  Church,  I  can  no  longer  remain  in  my  position." 

His  defection  was  not  unexpected.  In  consequence  of  his  strange 
course,  his  own  Diocese  had  lost  all  confidence  in  him  before  he  took  this 
step,  and  had  learned  to  distrust  his  recantations  and  the  sincerity  of  his 
promises.  Not  one  of  the  clergy  or  iaity  of  North  Carolina  is  known  to 
have  followed  him  in  his  abandonment  of  the  Church.  The  House  of 
Bishops,  at  the  meeting  of  the  General  Convention  in  1853,  solemnly  pro- 
nounced him,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Canon,  "  ipso  facto,  deposed  to 
all  intents  and  purposes  from  the  office  of  a  bishop  in  the  Church  of  God, 
and  from  all  the  rights,  privileges,  powers,  and  dignities  thereunto  pertain- 
ing." 

Dr.  Ives  died  October  13,  1867,  near  Fordham,  N.  Y.,  where  he  had 
acted  for  many  years  as  a  professor  in  St.  John's  (Romish)  College. 


; 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  367 

turber  of  the  peace  of  the  Church,  and  that  I  am  not 
addicted  to  unnecessary  controversy.  But  when 
errors  are  abroad  in  the  Church,  those  whom  Provi- 
dence has  placed  as  watchmen  upon  her  walls  should 
not  hesitate  to  give  the  necessary  warning.  It  may, 
perhaps,  be  apprehended  by  some,  that,  in  the  present 
case,  the  sound  of  alarm  may  create  too  general  a  dis- 
trust, and  that  it  may  bring  suspicion  upon  those  who 
do  not  justly  deserve  it.  But  in  regard  to  Romish 
errors,  the  position  of  no  churchman,  and  especially 
of  no  clergyman  of  the  Church,  should  be  in  the 
least  equivocal. 

"  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  religious  controversy  is 
very  liable  to  be  carried  on  with  uncharitable  feel- 
ings. This  consideration  should  lead  us  to  guard  our 
own  hearts  with  care.  But  the  good  Providence  of 
God,  which  brings  light  out  of  darkness,  often  illus- 
trates important  truths  by  the  exposure  of  error. 
Let  us  devoutly  pray  that  the  same  good  Providence 
may  so  direct  the  discussions  which  are  now  going  on 
in  the  Church,  that  prejudice  and  uncharitableness 
may  be  restrained,  that  the  cause  of  truth  and  right- 
eousness may  prevail,  and  that  the  Church  itself  may 
be  built  up,  enlarged,  and  established  in  the  most 
holy  faith." 

The  foregoing  extracts  from  the  address  of  the 
Bishop  were  referred  by  the  Convention  to  a  special 
committee  of  three  clergymen  and  two  laymen.  On 
the  morning  of  the  second  day  of  the  session,  the 
committee  reported  a  series  of  resolutions,  which,  if 
they  did  not  rise  to  the  tone  and  dignity  of  the 
address,  fully  responded  to  "the  opinions,  counsels, 
and  warnings "  of  the  Bishop,  and  bore  witness  that 


368  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

he  had  shown  no  disposition  to  provoke  "  unnecessary 
controversy,"  or  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  Church. 
A  brief  and  spirited  debate  followed,  and  a  few  mem- 
bers, who  expressed  concurrence  with  the  purport  of 
the  address,  evinced  an  unwillingness  to  sustain  the 
resolutions  on  technical  grounds.  For  this  reason  it 
was  decided  to  take  the  question  upon  their  adoption 
by  yeas  and  nays,  and  a  stranger,  dropping  into  the 
assembly  at  that  moment,  would  have  judged  by  the 
course  of  half  a  dozen  clergymen,  that  they  were  in 
actual  sympathy  with  the  Romanizers,  and  yet  as 
much  afraid  to  follow  the  dictates  of  their  consciences 
as  to  indorse  the  views  of  their  Diocesan.  Some 
retired  from  the  church  before  their  names  were 
called ;  two  or  three  asked  to  be  excused  from  vot- 
ing, but  their  request  was  denied,  and  thereupon  they 
either  refused  to  vote,  or  voted  nay. 

The  final  result  was  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions 
with  almost  entire  unanimity — five  only  of  the  clergy, 
and  two  of  the  laity,  appearing  in  the  negative.  This 
action  was  a  fresh  proof  of  the  conservative  spirit  of 
the  oldest  Diocese  in  our  country,  as  well  as  a  solemn 
protest  against  every  Romanizing  movement.  The 
fears  of  those  who  doubted  the  wisdom  of  the  Bishop 
in  bringing  the  subject  before  the  Convention,  and 
manifested  some  solicitude  at  the  peculiar  turn  which 
it  took,  never  were  realized.  Dr.  Croswell,  who  voted 
to  sustain  him,  said, "  An  evil  has  been  done  which  an 
age  will  not  cure,"  —  but  he  lived  long  enough  to 
change  his  opinion,  and  to  see  good  reasons  for  the 
counsel  "  that  the  Church  should  be  on  her  guard." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  369 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

deaths  among  the  clergy  ;  election  of  an  assistant 
bishop;  and  theological  education  in  the  diocese. 

a.  d.  1851  -  1853. 

As  the  draft  upon  Connecticut  by  other  dioceses 
still  continued,  the  real  working  force  of  the  clergy 
in  parishes  was  diminished  rather  than  increased. 
Death,  which  is  ever  finding  its  way  among  all  bodies 
of  men,  fell  upon  a  few  of  the  older  presbyters,  and 
now  and  then  upon  those  who  had  just  begun  to 
prove  their  Christian  armor.  Isaac  Jones  and  Tru- 
man Marsh,  both  far  advanced  in  years,  died  at  Litch- 
field—  one  in  the  spring  of  1850,  and  the  other  a 
year  later.  They  had  been  formerly  united  in  the 
charge  of  the  "  associated  churches  in  Litchfield,"  and 
Mr.  Marsh  was  Rector  of  the  mother  parish  there  (St. 
Michael's)  for  thirty  years  before  he  resigned  and 
went  into  retirement. 

But  the  name  of  a  more  distinguished  presbyter 
disappeared  from  the  -list  of  the  clergy  at  this  time. 
A  few  weeks  before  the  death  of  Mr.  Marsh,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Jarvis,  son  of  the  second  Bishop  of  Connecticut, 
died  at  his  residence  in  Middletown,  leaving  unfin- 
ished those  literary  labors  for  which  he  had  long  been 
qualifying  himself.  Since  his  return  to  this  country 
from  Europe  in  1835,  he  had  resided  in  Connecticut, 

VOL.  II.  24 


370         HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

and  acted  first  as  a  professor  in  the  College  at  Hart- 
ford, and  then  as  Rector  of  the  parish  in  Middletown. 
He  resigned  his  parochial  charge  in  1842,  and  de- 
voted himself  to  the  completion  of  a  work,  the  im- 
portance of  which  the  General  Convention  had  recog- 
nized by  appointing  him  "Historiographer  of  the 
Church,  with  a  view  to  his  preparing,  from  the  most 
original  sources  now  extant,  a  faithful  Ecclesiastical 
History  reaching  from  the  Apostles'  times  to  the 
formation  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States."  The  first  volume  was  a  mere  "  Chro- 
nological Introduction  "  to  this  history,  and  the  sec- 
ond had  scarcely  been  issued  from  the  press,  when 
aggravated  disease  came  upon  him  and  closed  his 
labors.  He  occupied  positions  of  honor  and  influence 
in  the  Diocese  which  were  due  to  his  profound 
scholarship  and  great  theological  attainments;  and 
the  Church  at  large  was  benefited  by  his  wisdom 
and  experience  in  her  general  councils,  and  by  numer- 
ous publications  setting  forth  her  doctrine,  discipline, 
and  worship.  Bishop  Brownell,  speaking  of  his  decease 
in  his  annual  address,  said,  he  "  has  been  called  away 
in  the  midst  of  his  usefulness,  and  while  the  Church 
was  looking  anxiously  forward  to  the  fruits  of  his 
future  labors.  For  the  extent  of  his  knowledge  in 
Biblical  literature  and  sacred  history,  he  has  left  few 
equals  behind  him,  in  this  or  any  other  country." 

Two  weeks  after  the  meeting  of  the  Annual  Con- 
vention in  1851,  the  Rev.  Seth  B.  Paddock,  who  was 
twenty-two  years  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Norwich, 
and  who  had  been  Principal  of  the  Episcopal  Acad- 
emy, since  the  autumn  of  1844,  died  at  Cheshire, 
after  a  protracted   and   painful   illness,  leaving  two 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  371 

sons1  to  inherit  his  good  name  and  succeed  him  in 
the  ministry  of  the  Church.  His  departure  was  soon 
followed  by  that  of  another.  The  oldest  presbyter 
of  the  Diocese,  born  and  serving  in  it,  and  the  last 
survivor  of  those  ordained  by  Bishop  Seabury,  Daniel 
Burhans,  D.  D.,  died  on  the  30th  of  December,  1853, 
having  passed  nearly  six  months  beyond  his  ninetieth 
birthday.  For  thirty  years  he  labored  faithfully  and 
successfully  as  Rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Newtown, 
and,  after  relinquishing  this  charge,  he  continued  to 
officiate  in  other  parishes  of  the  Diocese,  until  age 
and  infirmity  compelled  him  to  retire  from  the  exer- 
cise of  ministerial  duties.  His  fine  personal  appear- 
ance, good  elocution,  and  sound  practical  judgment 
supplied,  in  some  degree,  the  defects  of  early  educa- 
tion, and  gave  him,  in  his  better  days,  great  influence 
in  his  parish,  and  in  the  councils  of  the  Diocesan  and 
General  Conventions. 

The  venerable  "  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,"  having  "  been  permitted  to 
complete  a  century  and  a  half  of  missionary  labor," 
resolved  to  commemorate  with  thanksgiving  and 
prayer  the  close  of  its  third  Jubilee.  The  commem- 
oration commenced  in  England  on  the  16th  of  June, 
1851,  —  being  the  anniversary  of  the  signing  of  the 
royal  charter,  —  with  full  services  in  Westminster  Ab- 
bey ;  and  on  the  following  Sunday,  sermons  appro- 
priate to  the  occasion  were  preached  in  the  principal 
churches  of  the  metropolis,  and  collections  made  for 
the  promotion  of  missionary  objects.  The  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  President  of  the  Society,  addressed  a 

1  Rev.  John  A.  Paddock,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  ;  Eev.  Benjamin  H.  Paddock, 
D.  D.,  Detroit,  Mich. 


372  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

letter  to  the  several  bishops  of  our  Church  in  this 
country,  apprising  them  of  the  proposed  celebration, 
and  inviting  their  Christian  sympathy  and  cooperation. 

"  The  Society,"  said  he,  "  has  good  reason  to  expect, 
that  what  may  be  called  its  Solemn  Jubilee,  will  be 
observed  in  all  the  colonial  churches,  but  the  occa- 
sion seems  to  justify  the  hope  of  a  still  more  compre- 
hensive union  of  prayer  and  praise. 

"  Bearing  in  mind  the  relation  of  our  two  countries, 
and  the  intimate  connection  which  subsisted  between 
the  Society  and  many  of  the  States  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  last  century,  I  feel  some  confidence  in  pro- 
posing to  you  the  joint  celebration  of  a  Jubilee,  in 
which  all  the  members  of  our  Church  must  feel  a  com- 
mon interest.  I  venture,  also,  respectfully  to  submit, 
whether,  in  a  time  of  controversy  and  division,  the 
close  communion  which  binds  the  churches  of  Ame- 
rica and  England  in  one,  would  not  be  strikingly 
manifested  to  the  world,  if  every  one  of  their  dio- 
ceses were  to  take  part  in  commemorating  the  founda- 
tion of  the  oldest  Missionary  Society  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  —  a  Society  which,  from  its  first  small  begin- 
nings in  New  England,  has  extended  its  operations 
into  all  parts  of  the  world,  from  the  Ganges  to  Lake 
Huron,  and  from  New  Zealand  to  Labrador.  Such  a 
joint  commemoration,  besides  manifesting  the  rapid 
growth  and  wide  extension  of  our  Church,  would  serve 
to  keep  alive  and  diffuse  a  missionary  spirit,  and  so  be 
the  means,  under  the  Divine  blessing,  of  enlarging  the 
borders  of  the  Redeemer's  kingdom." 

The  Church  in  Connecticut  had  many  reasons  to  be 
specially  grateful  to  the  Society  for  aid  in  her  estab- 
lishment.    Its  fostering  care  and  protection  had  been 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  373 

bestowed  upon  her  for  a  period  of  more  than  fifty 
years  in  colonial  times,  and  God  had  brought  the 
seed,  then  planted  and  watered,  to  a  marvellous  in- 
crease. Hence  the  Annual  Convention,  which  met  at 
Waterbury,  in  1851,  sent  a  cordial  response  to  the  let- 
ter of  the  Archbishop,  and  having  designated  a  Sun- 
day to  be  devoted  to  a  participation  in  the  Jubilee, 
requested  the  Bishop  to  set  forth  a  proper  form  of 
prayer  to  be  used  in  all  the  churches  of  the  Diocese 
on  that  day,  and  the  clergy  to  preach  appropriate 
sermons,  and  make  collections  for  missions  within  the 
borders  of  Connecticut.  The  contributions  thus  re- 
ceived amounted  to  about  eighteen  hundred  dollars ; 
but  one  of  the  happiest  results  of  the  service  was  the 
interest  which  it  awakened  in  the  memories  of  the 
past,  and  the  information  which  was  thereby  diffused 
throughout  the  Diocese  concerning  the  early  charities 
and  operations  of  the  venerable  Society  in  New  Eng- 
land. 

The  celebration  was  observed  by  other  dioceses  of 
our  country ;  and  towards  the  end  of  the  year  of 
Jubilee,  a  second  letter  came  from  his  Grace,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  accompanied  by  resolu- 
tions of  the  Society,  acknowledging  the  cordiality 
with  which  the  original  invitation  had  been  received 
and  acted  on  by  the  bishops  and  clergy  of  the  Ameri- 
can Church,  and  asking  the  House  of  Bishops  to 
depute  two  or  more  of  their  number  to  join  in  the 
concluding  services.  These  were  to  be  held  on  the 
15th  of  June,  in  the  same  glorious  temple  where,  a 
year  before,  the  celebration  had  been  commenced,  and 
two  American  prelates,1  designated  by  their  brethren 

1  Bishop  De  Lancey,  of  Western  New  York,  and  Bishop  McCoskry,  of 
Michigan. 


374  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

for  this  purpose,  and  several  American  clergymen 
were  present  to  share  in  the  interest  and  joy  of 
the  occasion.  The  whole  movement  was  one  which 
served,  not  only  to  manifest  the  essential  unity  of  the 
churches  of  England  and  America,  but  to  "  promote 
a  spirit  of  Christian  good-will  and  harmony  among 
the  members  of  our  Communion,  in  all  parts  of  the 
world." 

Connecticut  was  benefited  by  the  missionary  spirit 
thus  excited  among  her  clergy  and  laity,  and  Eng- 
land felt  the  influence  of  the  special  efforts  made  to 
increase  the  funds,  and  extend  the  operations  of  "  the 
oldest  purely  missionary  institution"  in  the  realm. 
Dr.  Wilberforce,  the  Bishop  of  Oxford,  in  his  eloquent 
sermon  at  the  closing  services  in  Westminister  Abbey, 
said :  — 

"The  earth,  which  is  girdled  by  our  colonies,  is 
beginning  to  be  gemmed  by  our  colonial  sees.  This 
year  of  Jubilee  has  brought  its  own  blessing;  our 
work  has  been  more  supported,  and  aided  largely  by 
parishes  as  parishes.  For  this,  too,  let  us  this  day 
bless  God,  and  that  not  so  much  for  the  £1000  a  week 
of  added  resources,  which  He  has  poured  into  our 
coffers,  as  that,  by  means  of  this  increase,  we  have,  we 
trust,  already  been  enabled  to  add  three  new  sees  to 
our  colonial  Episcopate,  and  to  aid  in  founding  various 
colleges  from  whence  may  issue  forth  through  all 
lands  that  only  true  means  of  converting  nations,  a 
native  clergy  to  minister  amongst  their  brethren."  * 

Thirty  years  had  elapsed  since  the  Annual  Conven- 
tion met  in  Waterbury.  It  was  then  a  village  of  few 
inhabitants    and    little    enterprise,   but   now   it   had 

1  Sermon,  p.  12. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  375 

become  a  place  of  extensive  business,  large  wealth, 
and  increasing  population.  The  Convention  which 
assembled  in  it,  and  took  action  upon  the  Jubilee 
celebration,  was  composed  of  ninety  clergymen,  and 
upwards  of  one  hundred  lay  delegates,  —  about  three 
times  as  many  of  each  order  as  formed  the  body 
which  convened  in  the  same  place  in  1821,  and  heard 
the  primary  charge  of  Bishop  Brownell.  The  attend- 
ance was,  no  doubt,  larger  from  the  fact  that  an  im- 
.portant  movement  was  expected  to  be  made  in  this 
Convention.  Every  year  it  was  becoming  more  mani- 
fest that  the  infirmities  of  the  Bishop  were  lessening 
his  ability  to  perform  his  Episcopal  duties,  and  that 
the  best  interests  of  the  Diocese  would  suffer  if  some 
relief  was  not  soon  provided.  For  a  long  time  he  had 
not  attempted  to  preach,  and  it  was  rare  that  he  even 
addressed  the  candidates  presented  to  him  for  confirma- 
tion. He  was,  himself,  conscious  of  his  weakness  and 
decline,  and  a  few  weeks  before  the  assembling  of 
the  Convention  in  Waterbury,  he  "  addressed  a  cir- 
cular letter  to  all  his  brethren  of  the  clergy,  in  regard 
to  the  election  of  an  assistant  bishop,"  and  requested 
them  to  communicate  the  same  to  their  lay  delegates. 
The  substance  of  this  letter  was  recapitulated  at  the 
close  of  his  annual  address  as  follows  :  — 

"  It  will  be  remembered  that,  owing  to  bodily  in- 
firmities, which  disabled  me  from  preaching,  and 
which  were  a  hindrance  in  the  performance  of  other 
Episcopal  duties,  I  brought  this  subject  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  Convention  six  years  ago.  Difficul- 
ties were  felt  at  that  time  in  regard  to  the  selection 
of  a  candidate  for  the  office,  as  well  as  in  regard  to 
his  support ;  and,  after  due  deliberation,  it  was  decided 


376  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

to  defer  the  further  consideration  of  the  matter.  Be- 
lieving that  the  difficulties  which  then  existed  may 
now,  in  some  good  degree,  be  obviated ;  feeling  that 
the  weight  of  six  additional  years  has  been  accumu- 
lated upon  the  infirmities  which  then  beset  me,  and 
being  now  in  the  seventy-second  year  of  my  age,  I 
feel  myself  justified  in  bringing  this  subject  once 
more  to  the  consideration  of  the  Convention  of  the 
Diocese.  Before  coming  to  this  conclusion,  I  have 
thought  it  right  to  consult  extensively  the  views  of 
my  brethren  with  whom  I  have  had  the  opportunity 
of  conferring ;  and  the  great  unanimity  of  sentiment 
which  I  have  found  to  prevail,  encourages  me  to 
believe  that  the  proposition  will  be  received  with  gen- 
eral favor  by  the  Convention.  To  this  brief  statement, 
I  feel  impelled  to  add  the  expression  of  my  humble 
gratitude  to  the  great  Head  of  the  Church,  for  his 
unmerited  blessing  on  my  poor  labors  in  his  service. 
Nor  may  I  withhold  my  grateful  acknowledgments 
from  my  brethren  of  the  clergy,  for  the  indulgence 
they  have  shown  to  my  infirmities,  and  for  the  uni- 
form kindness  which  they  have  bestowed  on  me. 
From  not  one  of  them  have  I  ever  received  an  un- 
kind word,  or  been  conscious  of  an  unfriendly  act. 
May  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God  rest  upon  them, 
and  upon  the  people  of  their  charge." 

The  subject  of  choosing  an  assistant  bishop  was 
referred  to  a  judicious  committee,  with  instructions  to 
confer  with  the  venerable  Diocesan,  and  report  to  the 
Convention  at  nine  o'clock  the  next  morning.  Their 
unanimous  report  in  favor  of  the  proposed  measure 
was  readily  acquiesced  in,  and  the  two  orders  having 
separated  for  the  purpose  of  an  election  according  to 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  377 

the  terms  of  the  Constitution,  the  clergy  proceeded 
with  due  solemnity  to  cast  their  ballots.  The  number 
in  the  Diocese  entitled  to  vote  for  a  bishop,  was 
ninety-seven,  of  whom  nine  were  absent.  Upon 
counting  the  votes  after  the  first  balloting,  seventy- 
three  were  found  to  be  in  favor  of  the  Rev.  John 
Williams,  D.  D.,  President  of  Trinity  College,  and  a 
graduate  from  it  in  the  class  of  1835,  and  fifteen 
were  scattered  among  half  a  dozen  candidates.  This 
happy  result  was  communicated  to  the  House  of  Lay 
Delegates,  who  immediately  confirmed  the  nomination 
of  the  clergy  by  a  vote  of  eighty-seven  yeas,  and 
fourteen  nays.  Those  in  the  negative  did  not  raise 
any  objection  to  the  candidate  himself,  but  their 
opposition  lay  rather  to  the  uncertain  or  indefinite 
provision  for  his  support,  and  to  the  combined  rela- 
tions which  he  was  expected  to  sustain  to  the  College 
and  to  the  Diocese.  The  unanimity  of  both  orders 
was  very  remarkable,  and  Dr.  Williams,  in  signifying 
his  acceptance  of  the  office  which  had  been  conferred 
upon  him,  said  :  — 

"  To  be  associated  with  the  clergy  of  Connecticut, 
and  with  her  laity,  is  an  honor  which  I  feel  most 
deeply.  I  am  most  willing,  too,  to  devote  my  life  to 
the  service  of  a  Diocese  in  which  I  was  confirmed, 
and  received  both  my  orders ;  in  whose  principles  I 
was  educated ;  to  which  I  am  warmly  attached  ;  and 
whose  spotless  history  I  reverence  and  love.  The 
unanimity  and  good- will  which,  you  assure  me,  marked 
the  proceedings  of  the  Convention,  afford  other  and 
strong  encouragements.  May  it  be  a  pledge  for  the 
future,  that  by  no  fault  of  mine  the  harmony  and 
peace  which  have  ever  made  this  Diocese  '  a  city  at 
unity  in  itself/  shall  be  disturbed." 


378  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

The  requisite  testimonial  in  behalf  of  the  Assistant 
Bishop  elect,  was  signed  by  eighty-seven  clerical  mem- 
bers of  the  Convention,  and  ninety-three  lay  dele- 
gates. Of  the  lay  delegates,  twenty-nine  were  from 
New  Haven  County,  twenty-five  from  Fairfield  County, 
twenty  from  Litchfield  County,  eight  from  Hartford 
County,  five  from  each  of  the  Counties  of  Middlesex 
and  New  London,  and  one  from  Tolland  County. 

The  consecration  of  Dr.  Williams  took  place  in  St. 
John's  Church,  Hartford,  on  Wednesday,  the  29th  day 
of  October,  1851.  It  was  upon  the  same  day  of  the 
week,  thirty-two  years  before,  that  Bishop  Brownell 
had  been  consecrated  in  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven. 
Now  he  presided  at  the  consecration  of  one  chosen  to 
be  his  own  assistant,  and  he  was  aided  in  the  impres- 
sive services  by  the  bishops  from  all  the  New  England 
States,  and  by  Dr.  De  Lancey,  the  Bishop  of  Western 
New  York.  The  sermon  was  preached  by  Dr.  Bur- 
gess, the  Bishop  of  Maine,  in  which  he  drew  an  ad- 
mirable portraiture  of  the  character  of  a  man,  filling 
the  highest  office  in  the  ministry  of  our  Church.  Of 
the  eighty-six  clergymen,  most  of  them  in  surplices,1 
gathered  within  the  nave  and  around  the  chancel,  and 
of  the  vast  crowd  which  thronged  the  edifice,  not  one 
could  have  gone  away  without  a  feeling  of  thankful- 
ness for  being  permitted  to  witness  and  share  in  the 
solemnities  of  so  great  an  occasion. 

1  The  vestment  in  general  use  by  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  at  the  time 
of  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Brownell,  was  a  gown.  This  was  worn  on 
funeral  and  other  public  occasions,  and  a  surplice  was  rarely,  if  ever,  seen 
in  any  service  outside  of  a  church.  In  1825,  the  Annual  Convention  by  a 
formal  resolution,  recommended  to  the  wardens  and  vestrymen  of  the 
several  parishes  in  the  Diocese, "  to  provide  a  suitable  gown  for  the  use  of 
the  officiating  clergyman." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  379 

The  Assistant  Bishop  and  the  Diocesan  set  out  im- 
mediately on  a  visitation,  beginning  the  next  Sunday 
at  Seymour,  and  passing  into  Fairfield  County,  and 
spending  a  week  in  some  of  its  oldest  parishes.  On 
this  visitation,  the  senior  Bishop  confirmed  the  candi- 
dates, and  his  Assistant  addressed  them  and  preached 
the  sermons.  They  were  everywhere  warmly  wel- 
comed, and  the  ability  of  the  junior  prelate,  and  the 
favorable  impression  made  by  him  upon  churchmen 
with  whom  he  was  brought  in  contact,  were  cheering 
indications  of  his  success  under  God  in  the  future  ad- 
ministration of  the  Diocese. 

Gratuitous  instruction  had  been  given  for  some 
time  at  Trinity  College,  to  a  few  candidates  for  Holy 
Orders,  without  attracting  much  notice  beyond  the 
precincts  of  Hartford.  u  The  work  was  begun  in  no 
narrow  spirit  of  localism,  but  simply  under  a  strong 
feeling  of  the  growing  necessities  of  the  Church  in 
reference  to  the  sacred  ministry,  and  an  earnest  wish 
to  do  something  towards  meeting  those  necessities." 
It  increased  upon  the  hands  of  those  who  commenced 
it,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1851  a  full  course  of  theo- 
logical studies  was  regularly  organized,  and  afterwards 
"adopted  by  the  Trustees  as  an  integral  department 
in  the  College."  The  appointment  of  a  professor  in 
Ecclesiastical  History  was,  in  part,  the  origin  of  this 
scheme,  and  the  subsequent  action  of  the  trustees 
gave  shape  to  it,  and  warranted  the  presumption  that 
it  was  to  be  more  than  a  mere  experiment. 

Bishop  Brownell,  in  his  annual  address  to  the  Con- 
vention of  1852,  called  attention  to  the  establishment 
of  the  theological  department  in  the  College ;  and  the 
Convention  approved  of  it,  and  adopted  a  sentiment 


380  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

that  the  training  of  our  candidates  for  Orders  in  this 
way,  so  that  the  Bishop  might  have  them  under  his 
immediate  direction  and  superintendence,  was  "in 
accordance  with  the  early  practice  of  the  Diocese, 
and  the  universal  practice  of  the  primitive  Church." 
As  the  cares  of  the  Episcopate  multiplied  with  every 
revolving  year,  and  demanded  more  of  the  time  and 
attention  of  the  Assistant,  Dr.  Williams  resigned  the 
Presidency  of  Trinity  College  at  the  Commencement 
in  1853,  and  soon  after  this,  propositions  were  made 
to  place  the  theological  department  on  a  new  basis, 
and  with  a  liberal  endowment,  provided  it  was  re- 
moved to  Middletown,  and  established  in  that  city. 
One  generous  layman,1  and  one  presbyter2  of  the  Dio- 
cese offered  such  inducements,  that  subscriptions  to 
fill  up  the  endowment  were  readily  obtained,  and  the 
removal  having  been  effected,  Bishop  Williams  trans- 
ferred his  residence  to  Middletown,  and  assumed  the 
oversight  of  students  in  their  theological  course. 
The  institution  was  incorporated  by  the  Legislature 
in  1854,  under  the  name  of  the  "  Berkeley  Divinity 
School,"  and  with  a  provision  in  the  charter,  which 
gave  to  the  Convention  of  the  Diocese  the  future 
election  of  the  trustees.  The  Convention  readily 
accepted  the  charter  and  the  trust,  and  thus  it  became 
a  Diocesan  institution. 

A  commodious  building  for  the  use  of  the  students 
—  the  contribution  of  five  friends  of  the  School  — 
was  added,  in  1860,  to  the  large  edifice  originally 
purchased ;  and  three  resident  professors  besides  the 

1  Edward  S.  Hall,  Esq.,  of  Millville,  Mass.,  subscribed  twenty  thousand 
dollars. 

2  Rev.  Win.  Jarvis,  ten  thousand  dollars. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  381 

Bishop,  occupied  themselves,  as  from  the  first,  in  dis- 
pensing a  thorough  course  of  theological  instruction. 
About  the  same  time,  a  memorial  chapel  (St.  Luke's) 
built  of  stone,  was  presented  to  the  institution,  — 
"  the  munificent  benefaction  of  a  single  individual," 1 
whose  husband,  from  its  foundation,  had  been  in- 
terested in  its  success,  and  in  other  undertakings  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the  Church. 
It  is  not  easy  to  estimate  the  good  results  to  our 
communion  from  the  establishment  of  Trinity  Col- 
lege, and  the  Berkeley  Divinity  School.  How  much 
more,  or  whether  any  more  would  have  been  accom- 
plished by  keeping  them  together  under  one  cor- 
porate name,  and  giving  to  the  College  somewhat  of 
the  character  of  a  University,  is  not  a  question  for  the 
historian  to  decide  or  examine.  They  have  both  been 
highly  useful,  and  the  College  has .  done  a  work  far 
beyond  that  of  educating  young  men  with  a  view  to 
the  Christian  ministry.  Among  its  graduates  scattered 
over  our  land,  are  those  who  adorn  the  professions  of 
law  and  medicine,  and  the  higher  walks  of  learning 
and  science.  Bishop  Brownell  said,  in  1852,  a  Nearly 
one  third  of  the  clergy  in  our  Diocese,  and  nearly 
one  tenth  of  all  the  clergy  of  our  Church  have  been 
educated  at  this  institution,  while  a  much  larger 
number  of  its  graduates  occupy  important  stations 
in  other  learned  professions,  or  in  the  various  occupa- 
tions of  society.  Its  influence  would  be  greatly  ex- 
tended by  more  ample  endowments ;  and  by  a  fuller 
appreciation  of  its  advantages  by  such  members  of 
our  Church  as  would  seek  a  safe  and  healthful  col- 
legiate education  for  their  sons." 

1  Widow  of  the  late  Thomas  Dent  Mutter,  M.  D. 


382  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

The  "more  ample  endowments"  were  afterwards 
received,  —  a  special  effort  being  made  to  add  to  its 
funds  one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  One  fourth  of 
this  amount  was  immediately  subscribed  by  four  lay- 
men1 of  Waterbury,  who  thus  founded  a  new  profes- 
sorship, and  contributed  a  handsome  sum  for  the  use 
of  the  library.  The  effort  was  not  completed  before 
a  general  financial  embarrassment  led  to  its  suspen- 
sion. When  it  was  renewed,  the  original  sum,  exclu- 
sive of  the  contributions  from  Waterbury,  was  sought, 
and  ultimately  obtained.  It  was  a  timely  replenish- 
ment of  the  treasury  of  the  College,  and,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  thousand  dollars,  the  whole  amount 
was  subscribed  by  churchmen  in  the  Diocese  of  Con- 
necticut. 

1  J.  L.  M.  Scovill  gave  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  his  brother  Wm.  H. 
Scovill,  both  since  deceased,  seven  thousand,  and  Scovill  M.  Buckingham, 
three  thousand  to  endow  the  "  Scovill  Professorship  of  Chemistry  and 
Natural  Science."  The  late  John  P.  Elton  gave  five  thousand  dollars  for 
the  Library. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  383 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

NEW  PARISHES  AND  NEW  CHURCHES  ;  GENERAL  CONVENTION  ; 
FUND  FOR  THE  SUPPORT  OF  THE  EPISCOPATE;  AND  SALARIES 
OF  THE  CLERGY. 

a.  d.  1853-1857. 

Nothing  appeared  now  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
more  rapid  advancement  of  the  Church  in  Connecti- 
cut. With  institutions  to  educate  candidates  for  Holy 
Orders,  and  with  a  youthful  and  vigorous  element 
introduced  into  the  Episcopate,  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  Diocese  was  quickened,  and  parishes  put  forth 
efforts  which,  with  the  divine  blessing,  were  greatly 
conducive  to  their  prosperity.  The  total  number  of 
communicants  already  exceeded  ten  thousand,  the 
candidates  for  the  ministry  reported  in  1853  were 
twenty-one,  and  the  contributions  for  missionary  and 
charitable  objects  nearly  twenty- two  thousand  dol- 
lars —  an  amount  more  than  twice  as  large  as  had 
been  contributed  for  like  purposes  five  years  before. 

Besides  an  increase  in  the  strength  and  liberality 
of  the  existing  parishes,  the  organization  of  new  ones 
was  effected  not  so  much  on  the  principle  of  aggres- 
sion as  to  meet  the  calls  for  the  services  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church  in  populous  places,  where  they  had  been 
only  occasionally  performed,  or  where  more  room  was 
needed  to  supply  the  wants  of  our  growing  com- 
munion. A  week  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the 
Annual  Convention  in  1851,  a  new  church  was  conse- 


384  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

crated  for  the  new  parish  at  Pine  Meadow,  in  the 
town  of  New  Hartford.  The  inhabitants  of  that  vil- 
lage, none  of  whom  were  then  Episcopalians,  erected 
it  with  the  aid  of  a  few  friends  in  the  Diocese,  and 
contributed  liberally  in  the  outset  to  provide  for  the 
support  of  a  resident  clergyman.  A  month  later,  "  a 
very  perfect  edifice,  built  of  Portland  stone  "  in  the 
early  English  style,  but  with  too  much  chancel  for 
the  size  of  the  structure,  was  consecrated  at  Milford, 
to  take  the  place  of  the  old  church  begun  there 
before  the  Revolutionary  War.  The  ancient  parishes 
at  Litchfield  and  Branford  found  it  necessary  to 
enlarge  the  accommodations  for  their  people,  and 
hence  a  new  church  of  wood  was  completed  and  con- 
secrated in  each  of  them,  during  the  ensuing  winter. 
From  that  time  to  1857  only  three  new  edifices  — 
two  of  wood,  and  one  of  stone  —  were  erected  for 
parishes  with  a  colonial  origin.  The  two  of  wood, 
were  for  Christ  Church,  Watertown,  and  Trinity 
Church,  Southport,  a  borough  in  Fairfield,  where  the 
church  consecrated  in  1835  had  been  accidentally 
burned ;  and  the  other,  of  "  rubble  stone,  with  Caen 
trimmings,"  was  for  the  parish  at  Greenwich. 

But  much  was  accomplished  during  the  same  pe- 
riod, in  the  way  of  improving  and  enlarging  the  old 
edifices  —  the  alterations,  in  some  instances,  being 
almost  equivalent  to  rebuilding.  Chancels  and  towers 
were  added  to  them,  organs  were  introduced,  and  par- 
sonages provided  for  the  comfort  and  convenience 
of  the  rectors  and  their  families.  In  the  first  six 
years  succeeding  the  consecration  of  Bishop  Wil- 
liams, the  churches  at  Salisbury,  Naugatuck,  Fair  Ha- 
ven, Stamford  (St.  John's),  Woodbury,  Middletown, 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  385 

Bethel,  Norwich  (Trinity),  "Warehouse  Point,  Marble- 
dale,  and  Middle  Haddam,  all  underwent  alteration 
and  enlargement,  and  were  reopened  with  dedicatory 
services. 

Within  the  same  period,  the  ground  was  broken 
for  seven  churches  in  as  many  new  parishes  —  three 
of  these  being  in  the  city  of  New  Haven.  The  tem- 
porary chapel  erected  by  St.  Thomas's  parish  in  1849 
was  insufficient  for  the  wants  of  the  increased  con  are- 

o 

gation,  and  a  complete  edifice  in  the  early  English 
style  of  architecture,  with  the  walls  and  tower  of  Port- 
land stone,  and  capable  of  seating  nine  hundred  per- 
sons, was  built  to  take  its  place,  and  consecrated  by 
Bishop  Brownell,  amid  the  joys  of  the  Easter  season 
in  1855.  This  was  his  last  official  act  in  New  Haven, 
and,  though  he  lived  on  for  nearly  ten  years,  yet  he 
performed  only  once  again  the  same  service  else- 
where.1 Two  mission  churches,  both  of  wood,  and 
small  at  first,  arose  in  New  Haven,  not  long  before  the 
date  of  this  consecration,  —  one  under  the  auspices 
and  patronage  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  and  the  other 
under  those  of  Trinity.  They  soon  developed  into  in- 
dependent parishes,  and  took  the  names,  respectively, 
of  St.  John's  Church,  and  Christ  Church.  The  evi- 
dence of  their  prosperity  appeared  in  the  immediate 
rebuilding  and  enlargement  of  their  edifices.  Through 
the  renewed  efforts  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  another  mis- 
sion chapel  of  wood  was  erected  in  an  outskirt  of  the 
city,  and  consecrated  early  in  December,  1857.  It 
was  established  upon  the  free  principle,  like  the  other 
two,  and  the  poor  and  men  of  low  estate  in  the  neigh- 

1  About  three  months   afterwards,   he   consecrated  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Hartford. 

VOL.  II.  25 


386  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

borhood  were  invited  to  enter  it,  and  learn  the  way 
of  salvation.  It  has  not  yet  acquired  complete  in- 
dependency ;  for  though  recently  organized  as  a  par- 
ish, it  still  derives  aid  in  the  support  of  its  minister 
from  the  mother  church. 

On  the  eve  of  the  Advent  season  in  1850,  Bishop 
Brownell  called  together,  at  his  residence  in  Hart- 
ford, the  clergy  of  the  city  and  several  influential 
laymen,  for  the  purpose  of  consulting  about  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  free  Episcopal  Church,  and  City  Mission. 
Out  of  this  movement  grew  what  is  now  St.  Paul's 
Church,  Hartford,  a  substantial  stone  edifice,  provided 
for  those  who  had  no  settled  place  of  worship,  as  well 
as  for  those  who  might  find  inconvenience  or  embar- 
rassment in  the  workings  of  the  pew  system. 

The  rectors  in  Hartford  and  some  of  the  clergy 
attached  to  the  College,  with  a  few  zealous  church- 
men from  that  city,  commenced  services  at  earlier 
dates  in  Windsor,1  Manchester,  and  West  Hartford, 
which  subsequently  led  to  the  formation  of  parishes, 
and  the  building  of  churches  in  all  those  places.  The 
church  in  West  Hartford,  constructed  of  brick,  was 
completed  in  the  spring  of  1855. 

In  midsummer,  1856,  a  new  church,  built  of  wood, 
was  opened  at  Central  Village,  in  the  town  of  Plain- 
field,  the  fruit  chiefly  of   missionary   efforts   by   the 

1  The  first  Episcopal  Church  in  Windsor —  a  small  wooden  edifice  —  was 
consecrated  January,  1845. 

A  larger  and  more  attractive  church,  built  of  stone  in  the  early  English 
style,  and  on  a  different  site,  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Williams,  Septem- 
ber, 1865.  Its  cost  was  over  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  —  a  portion  of 
which  was  contributed  by  friends  outside  of  the  parish.  The  land  on 
which  it  stands  was  the  gift  of  Mr.  H.  Sidney  Hay  den,  who,  in  addition  to 
this  and  his  original  subscription,  paid  a  debt  of  some  five  thousand  dol- 
lars, to  free  the  church  from  all  incumbrance  and  allow  it  to  be  conse- 
crated. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  387 

clergy  in  Eastern  Connecticut.  A  movement  was 
made,  about  the  same  time,  to  establish  the  services 
of  our  Church  in  Yantic,  a  manufacturing  village 
■within  the  limits  of  Norwich,  and  the  movement  was 
attended  with  success. 

Steps  towards  the  organization  of  a  second  parish 
in  the  city  of  Bridgeport,  by  the  name  of  Christ 
Church,  were  taken  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year 
1850.  A  building  was  procured  and  fitted  up,  in 
which  to  hold  religious  services,  but  in  less  than  ten 
months  it  was  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  loss  occa- 
sioned thereby  was  supplied  by  the  erection  of  a 
costly  and  substantial  edifice  of  brown  stone,  with 
sittings  for  about  eight  hundred  persons.  This  was 
consecrated  in  April,  1853.  A  new  parish  formed  in 
the  adjoining  town  of  Fairfield,  was  admitted  into 
union  with  the  Convention  in  1856,  and  its  projectors 
purchased  an  unfurnished  brick  building  in  a  central 
location,  which,  with  some  changes  and  additions,  was 
made,  architecturally,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
church-like  structures  in  the  Diocese. 

All  the  parishes  in  the  shore  towns,  from  New 
Haven  towards  New  York,  were  beginning  to  feel  the 
impulse  of  an  increase  in  the  number  of  their  inhabi- 
tants, and  more  room  and  better  edifices  were  needed 
to  meet  the  wants  and  suit  the  wishes  of  wealthy  resi- 
dents. The  work  of  Church  extension  was  visible,  too, 
in  every  part  of  the  Diocese,  and  the  Society  for  the 
Promotion  of  Christian  Knowledge  made  the  most 
earnest  appeals  for  larger  contributions  to  enable  it 
to  extend  its  operations.  The  Assistant  Bishop 
preached  a  sermon  in  its  behalf  during  the  Annual 
Convention  of  1853,  and  showed  by  what  he  emphati- 


388  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

cally  styled  "  the  rhetoric  of  facts,  and  the  logic  of 
statistics,"  how  important  it  was  to  be  more  zealous 
in  the  cause  of  Diocesan  Missions.  The  Convention 
indorsed  his  sentiments,  and  recommended  to  the 
several  parishes  to  contribute,  on  an  average,  to  the 
funds  of  the  Society,  not  less  than  fifty  cents  for  each 
communicant,  and  the  amount  received  into  the  treas- 
ury during  the  ensuing  year,  rose  from  one  thousand 
to  more  than  three  thousand  dollars.  The  interest 
thus  excited  in  Diocesan  Missions  continued,  and  no 
backward  steps  have  since  been  taken. 

The  General  Convention  held  its  triennial  session 
in  October,  1853,  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The 
House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies  was  composed  of 
exactly  two  hundred  persons,  and  the  whole  number 
of  the  clergy  of  our  church  in  the  United  States  was 
then  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty-three,  including  thirty- 
one  bishops.  By  the  death  of  Bishop  Philander 
Chase,  of  Illinois,  in  September  of  the  preceding  year, 
Dr.  Brownell  had  become  the  senior  and  presiding 
prelate,  and  he  was  present  at  the  opening  services 
of  the  Convention,  and  took  an  active  part  in  its  pro- 
ceedings. The  session  was  marked  by  the  visit  of  a 
deputation *  from  the  venerable  Society  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts  to  the  Board 
of  Missions  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States.  This  was  a  suitable  return  of  kind 
sympathy  for  the  interest  shown  by  the  American 
bishops,  in  sending  two  of  their  number  to  represent 
them,  and  to  participate  in  the  concluding  exercises 

i  The  Rt.  Rev.  Geo.  T.  Spencer,  D.  D.,  late  Lord  Bishop  of  Madras,  the 
venerable  John  Sinclair,  the  Rev.  Ernest  Hawkins,  and  the  Rev.  Henry 

Caswall. 


IK   CONNECTICUT.  389 

of  the  Jubilee  of  the  venerable  Society  referred  to 
in  a  previous  chapter.  Those  who  composed  the 
deputation  must  have  looked  with  pride  and  joy  upon 
the  council  of  the  daughter  Church,  gathered  now  in 
so  much  strength  from  every  section  of  the  land  to 
legislate  for  her  best  interests,  and  to  provide  for  any 
new  emergencies  that  had  arisen  in  her  history.  One 
painful  circumstance,  —  the  complete  abandonment 
of  our  Communion  by  Dr.  Ives,  late  Bishop  of  North 
Carolina,  and  his  submission  to  the  Roman  hierarchy, 
—  might  have  been  noted  by  them ;  but  the  solemn 
and  canonical  deposition  of  him  from  the  Apostolic 
office  was  almost  immediately  followed  by  the  eleva- 
tion to  the  Episcopal  bench  of  two  presbyters,  —  one 
(Dr.  Atkinson),  to  take  his  place,  and  the  other  (Dr. 
Davis),  to  fill  the  vacant  see  of  South  Carolina.  On 
the  occasion  of  their  consecration,  all  the  Bishops  of 
the  American  Church  were  present,  together  with 
Bishop  Spencer,  and  Dr.  Medley,  the  Bishop  of 
Fredericton,  New  Brunswick,  who  both  joined  in  the 
imposition  of  hands.  The  latter  preached  the  sermon, 
and  the  House  of  Bishops  thanked  him  "  with  frater- 
nal greetings,"  and  solicited  a  copy  of  it  for  publica- 
tion. 

A  bold  step  towards  the  extension  of  the  Church 
was  taken  by  the  same  Convention  in  the  choice  of 
two  presbyters,1  to  be  consecrated  Missionary  Bishops 
for  the  Pacific  coast,  —  one  for  California,  and  the 
other  for  "  Oregon,  having  jurisdiction  in  Washington 
Territory."  The  rapidity  with  which  that  region, 
especially   California,  was  filling  up   with  an  active 

i  Rev.  Wm,  I.  Kip,  D.  D.,  of  Albany,  N.  Y.,  and  Rev.  Thomas  F.  Scott, 
of  Columbus,  Ga. 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

population,  forbade  the  policy  of  waiting  for  the  per- 
fect organization  of  dioceses  before  sending  out  the 
chief  shepherds  to  oversee  the  scattered  flocks. 

The  pastoral  letter  of  the  House  of  Bishops  at  this 
time  was  from  the  pen  of  the  presiding  prelate,  and  it 
breathed  with  the  spirit  of  peace,  moderation,  and 
wisdom.  A  single  extract  from  it  will  be  of  interest 
in  the  present  connection  :  — 

"The  world  around  us  is  pervaded  by  forms  of 
error,  against  which  nothing  but  active  controversy 
can  be  successful.  It  should  be  a  controversy,  how- 
ever, dictated  and  modified  by  love.  On  the  one 
hand,  we  behold  an  all-grasping  Romanism,  which 
gives  no  quarter,  allows  no  truce,  but  demands  an 
unconditional  submission.  On  the  other  hand  are 
various  forms  of  error,  still  pervaded,  more  or  less,  by 
the  true  spirit  of  Christianity,  but  constantly  break- 
ing into  fragments,  and  steadily  tending  to  latitudi- 
narianism  and  infidelity.  Amid  these  erratic  tenden- 
cies, the  best  hopes  of  Christianity  are  centred  in  the 
Church  of  England,  and  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  the  United  States. 

"  The  spread  of  Eomanism  in  this  country  is  in- 
evitable —  not  much,  indeed,  by  proselytism,  but  by 
immigration.  A  few  romantic  and  sentimental  minds 
may  be  captivated  by  its  imposing  ceremonial,  and  its 
specious  claim  to  holy  living,  but  the  hollowness  of 
its  pretensions,  and  the  imposing  parade  of  its  im- 
postures cannot  stand  the  scrutiny  of  an  enlightened 
public  opinion.  In  most  Roman  Catholic  countries, 
there  is,  probably,  a  wide-spread  infidelity  among  the 
more  intelligent  classes  of  the  community.  They 
regard  with  contempt  the  impostures  which  the  igno- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  391 

rant  eagerly  receive.  The  Roman  Catholic  religion, 
too,  wears  a  very  different  aspect  in  Italy,  Spain,  and 
Portugal,  from  that  which  it  exhibits  in  this  country. 
Superstitions  and  mummeries  there  pass  unquestioned, 
which,  in  this  country,  would  not  impose  upon  the 
credulity  of  its  most  ignorant  devotee.  The  remis- 
sion of  several  hundred  years  of  the  pains  of  purga- 
tory, by  the  dropping  of  a  few  shillings,  and  repeatr 
ing  a  few  aves  and  paters  at  the  shrine  of  some  sup- 
posed saint,  which  is  so  frequently  advertised  in  the 
countries  referred  to,  would  hardly  impose  upon  the 
most  ignorant  Romanist  in  this  land  of  free  opinions. 

"The  wonderful  immigration  of  Roman  Catholics 
to  this  country  is  often  looked  upon  with  alarm  by 
the  friends  of  other  religious  institutions.  Who 
knows  but  it  is  the  way  designed  by  Infinite  Wisdom 
for  their  reformation  ?  We  would  hope  that  Roman- 
ism cannot  withstand  even  the  popular  influences  of 
our  country.  Besotted  ignorance  cannot  long  prevail 
in  a  land  of  free  schools.  Servile  superstition  must 
gradually  decline  in  a  land  of  free  inquiry.  Priest- 
craft and  imposture  cannot  long  flourish  in  a  land  of 
newspapers.  It  should  seem  to  be  our  wisdom,  there- 
fore, as  well  as  our  duty,  to  treat  our  less  favored 
brethren  with  kind  consideration,  to  improve  their 
temporal  condition,  to  enlighten  their  minds,  and 
to  afford  them  the  full  benefit  of  all  our  free  institu- 
tions. Under  their  own  organization,  they  can  hardly 
fail  gradually  to  emancipate  themselves  from  the 
thraldom  which  has  been  imposed  upon  them  in  times 
of  ignorance  and  imposture.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  that,  from  the  very  circumstances  of  their  posi- 
tion, they  will  be  making  rapid  advances  towards  a 


392  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

more  intelligent  and  a  purer  faith ;  and  it  is  hardly 
possible  that  more  than  a  century  or  two  can  elapse 
before,  by  a  gradual  progress,  they  will  relieve  them- 
selves from  those  superstitions  and  corruptions  of  the 
Dark  Ages,  which,  in  our  parent  Church,  were  thrown 
off  by  a  more  sudden  revolution.  We  may  be  too 
sanguine  in  these  anticipations,  but  it  is  certainly  a 
consummation  most  devoutly  to  be  wished." 

No  positive  provision  was  made  for  the  support  of 
the  Assistant  Bishop  at  the  time  of  his  election.  It 
was  understood  that  he  would  not  immediately  retire 
from  the  presidency  of  the  College,  and  that  the  mat- 
ter of  salary,  at  least  during  his  continuance  in  that 
office,  would  be  a  private  arrangement  between  him 
and  the  venerable  Diocesan.  The  Episcopal  Fund  had 
been  nursed  with  the  greatest  care,  but  the  income 
from  it,  together  with  the  annual  assessments  upon 
the  parishes  in  the  proportion  of  two  and  one  half 
per  cent  on  the  salaries  of  their  respective  rectors, 
scarcely  amounted  to  three  thousand  dollars.  The 
amount  should  have  been  larger,  but  many  of  the 
parishes  neglected  to  pay  these  assessments;  and  at 
the  Convention  of  1853,  a  committee  of  laymen,  in  a 
voluminous  report  not  free  from  mistakes,  reviewed 
the  history  of  the  Fund,  and  urged  upon  the  Conven- 
tion the  necessity  of  taking  effectual  measures  to 
increase  its  permanent  and  productive  capital.  By 
this  time,  the  whole  of  the  considerable  balance,  prin- 
cipal and  interest,  due  to  the  senior  Bishop  ten  years 
before,  had  been  paid,  together  with  his  regular  salary 
of  eighteen  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  to  April  1, 
1853. 

When  the  subject  came  up  for  discussion  in  the 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  393 

Convention  of  that  year,  the  two  Bishops  withdrew, 
and  afterwards  sent  in  a  joint  communication,  in  which 
they  stated  that  they  would  be  "  entirely  satisfied " 
with  receiving  the  present  income  of  the  fund,  and 
the  assessments  on  the  parishes ;  and  concluding  with 
the  expression  of  their  earnest  hope,  "  that  the  avail- 
able resources  of  the  Diocese  may  be  applied,  as  far 
as  is  practicable,  to  the  Extension  of  the  Church ;  by 
aiding  the  weaker  parishes,  and  by  the  establishment 
of  missions,  and  the  organization  of  new  conorreg-a- 
tions  in  those  populous  portions  of  the  State  where 
the  Church  is  yet  unknown."  This  was  certainly 
generous  to  the  Diocese,  if  it  was  not  strictly  just  to 
themselves. 

The  original  charter,  under  which  the  Trustees  of 
the  Bishop's  Fund  acted,  gave  them  no  power  to  hold 
property  at  any  time,  "  the  annual  product  of  which 
exceeded  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,"  and  upon 
their  petition,  the  General  Assembly,  at  its  May  ses- 
sion in  1853,  authorized  and  empowered  them  to 
receive  and  hold  for  the  purposes  for  which  they 
were  incorporated,  funds  "  the  annual  income  of 
which,  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent  per  annum,  shall 
not  exceed  five  thousand  dollars."  In  opening  the 
charter,  the  Legislature  took  away  the  rights  of  a 
close  corporation,  and  required  of  the  Trustees  an 
annual  report  to  the  Diocesan  Convention  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  fund,  its  investment  and  proceeds ;  and 
also  empowered  that  body  to  fill  all  vacancies  in  the 
Board,  and  in  case  of  the  neglect  or  refusal  of  the 
Trustees  to  render  an  acceptable  report,  to  remove 
any  one  or  more  of  them  from  office,  and  appoint 
others  in  their  place.     The  result  of  these  changes  in 


394  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

the  charter  was  beneficial.  The  Diocese  now  gained, 
as  a  matter  of  right,  the  information  which  formerly  it 
had  acquired  only  as  a  matter  of  courtesy.  The  effort 
to  collect  from  the  delinquent  parishes  wrhat  was  due 
on  the  old  assessment  of  1813  was  finally  abandoned, 
and  reliance  for  the  full  support  of  the  Episcopate 
placed  with  more  wisdom  on  the  annual  assessment, 
which  had  been  renewed  by  a  special  vote  of  the 
Convention,  and  directed  to  be  continued  during  the 
life  of  Bishop  Brownell. 

The  Trustees  had  managed  the  fund  well,  and  not- 
withstanding one  heavy  loss,  —  the  loss  by  the  failure 
of  the  Eagle  Bank,  —  it  had  grown  upon  their  hands, 
and  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Sigourney,  when,  on 
account  of  age  and  infirmities,  he  resigned  the  office 
of  Treasurer  in  1854,  after  having  held  it  for  upwards 
of  forty  years,  "  the  little  brook  had  become  a  river." 
The  Diocese  was  grateful  to  him  for  his  long-con- 
tinued services,  and  he  retired  from  his  trust  with  a 
vote  of  deserved  thanks. 

When  the  Assistant  Bishop  resigned  the  presidency 
of  Trinity  College,  it  was  with  the  understanding  that 
he  was  to  receive  from  the  Trustees  of  the  Episcopal 
Fund  the  surplus  revenue  of  that  Fund,  as  increased 
by  the  amount  paid  in  by  the  parishes,  after  the  salary 
of  the  Bishop  had  been  paid.  This  arrangement  was 
to  take  effect  from  the  1st  of  January,  1853,  ante- 
dating so  far  the  time  of  his  actual  separation  from 
the  College.  But  the  revenue  thus  received  was 
insufficient  to  afford  him  a  competent  income,  and 
in  1856,  the  Convention  voted  to  give  him  twenty- 
five  hundred  dollars  per  annum,  and  to  double  the 
assessment  upon  the  parishes,  —  "the   extra  sum  so 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  395 

raised,  to  be  appropriated  to  meet  the  increase  of  the 
Assistant  Bishop's  salary."  The  resolution  in  regard 
to  doubling  the  assessment  was  not  carried  into 
effect.  Bishop  Brownell,  on  learning  what  had  been 
done,  directed  the  Treasurer  of  the  Episcopal  Fund 
to  pay  to  his  assistant  twenty-five  hundred  dollars 
annually,  and  accepted  for  himself  whatever  balance 
there  might  be,  without  the  additional  tax.  He  had 
become  too  infirm  to  make  any  visitations,  or  to  be 
depended  upon  for  the  discharge  of  any  official  duties. 
His  last  communication  to  the  Convention  of  the 
Diocese,  and  his  last  appearance  in  that  body,  were  at 
its  assembling  in  Christ  Church,  Hartford,  in  1859. 
Providence  had  thrown  into  his  hands  a  sufficiency 
of  this  world's  goods  to  make  him  comfortably  inde- 
pendent in  his  declining  years,  and  he  freely  relin- 
quished, for  the  benefit  of  his  assistant  and  successor, 
what  he  might  have  equitably  claimed  on  the  score 
of  past  services.  The  salary  of  Bishop  Williams  was 
increased,  in  1864,  to  three  thousand  dollars,1  and  the 
resolution  assessing  the  parishes  two  and  one  half  per 
cent,  was  reaffirmed  and  ordered  to  be  in  force  until 
the  annual  income  of  the  Fund  should,  at  least,  be 
equal  to  that  amount. 

The  special  attention  of  the  laity  was  directed,  in 
1853,  to  a  more  liberal  support  of  the  parochial 
clergy.  Nowhere  in  the  Diocese,  unless  in  a  few 
city  parishes,  were  their  salaries  more  than  sufficient 
for  the  absolute  necessities  of  their  position.  "An 
intelligent   mechanic,"  said  Bishop  Brownell,  in  his 

iln  1866,  it  was  increased  to  four  thousand  dollars,  and  in  1868,  the 
Convention,  upon  the  suggestion  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Bishop's  Fund, 
added  five  hundred  dollars  more,  —  making  it  four  thousand  five  hundred 
dollars  per  annum. 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

address  to  the  Annual  Convention  of  that  year,  "  re- 
ceives better  compensation  for  labor  than  many  a 
clergyman  who  has  devoted  years  to  hard  study,  and 
spent  much  money  in  acquiring  the  necessary  liter- 
ary and  theological  preparation  for  the  duties  of  his 
profession."  The  age  had  become  extravagant,  and 
the  cost  of  living  was  greatly  advanced.  Individuals 
devoted  to  other  pursuits  demanded  an  increased 
remuneration  for  the  fruits  of  their  toil  on  the  ground 
that  it  was  necessary  to  enable  them  to  maintain 
their  families,  and  provide  them  with  suitable  com- 
forts, and  the  demand  thus  made  was  irresistible. 
But  the  salaries  of  the  clergy,  though  a  matter  of 
contract  between  them  and  their  people,  could  not  be 
regulated  simply  on  the  principles  of  a  hireling. 
This  was  a  low  view  of  the  question,  and  the  parishes 
that  entertained  it  were  unmindful  of  their  best 
interests. 

The  whole  subject  was  referred  by  the  Convention 
to  a  committee  of  laymen,  who,  in  their  report, 
recognized  the  fact  that  the  salaries  of  the  clergy, 
especially  in  the  rural  districts,  were  not  what  they 
ought  to  be,  and  they  appealed  to  the  laity  to  awake 
to  a  proper  sense  of  duty  and  justice  in  this  matter. 
«  No  greater  blessing,"  said  they,  "  can  exist  in  any 
village,  than  the  influence  of  an  educated,  an  intellec- 
tual, cheerful,  and  happy  clergyman,  and  his  family. 
This  influence  is  felt  in  all  our  social  or  domestic  rela- 
tions, softening  the  asperities,  refining  and  elevating 
the  propensities  of  our  nature.  In  sickness  and  in 
health,  in  our  joys  and  in  our  sorrows,  he  is  with  us 
to  alleviate  and  to  heighten  ;  and  gratitude  should 
unite  with  interest  in  the  laity  to  strengthen  that 
influence.     Much,  very  much,  depends  in  this  respect 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  397 

upon  a  comfortable  support,  cheerfully  and  promptly 
given." 

Whether  the  suggestions,  emanating  from  the  Con- 
vention in  this  way,  were  the  cause  or  not,  the 
parishes  soon  began  to  make  better  provision  for  the 
support  of  their  rectors.  The  salaries  were  generally 
increased,  and  with  the  development  of  more  life,  as 
shown  in  the  erection  of  new  churches,  or  the  enlarge- 
ment  of  old  ones,  several  parishes  proceeded  to  sup- 
ply themselves  with  rectories,  which  were  to  be  free 
of  rent  for  their  respective  pastors.  This  was  a  move- 
ment in  the  right  direction,  and  tended  to  prevent 
the  evil  of  frequent  clerical  changes.  Besides  the 
direct  advantage  to  the  clergyman,  there  are  pleasant 
memories  for  the  people  lingering  about  the  rural 
rectory.  They  often  come  to  it  for  the  relief  of  their 
burdened  souls,  and  for  guidance  in  the  day  of  trouble 
and  adversity.  They  watch  with  delight  the  hand  of 
improvement,  as  applied  by  some  tasteful  occupant, 
and  a  priest  of  God  in  the  next  generation  may  thus 
have  reason  to  cherish  feelings  of  gratitude  towards 
his  predecessor,  and  to  be  excited  thereby  to  good 
works.  When  the  celebrated  George  Herbert  had 
rebuilt,  at  his  own  charge,  the  greatest  part  of  the 
parsonage  at  Bemerton,  he  caused  to  be  engraved 
upon  the  mantel  of  the  chimney  in  the  hall,  for  the 
benefit  of  his  successor,  these  significant  lines :  — 

"  If  thou  chance  for  to  find 
A  new  house  to  thy  mind, 

And  built  without  thy  cost, 
Be  good  to  the  poor, 
As  God  gives  thee  store, 

And  then  my  labor  's  not  lost."  * 

1  Temple  and  Country  Parson,  p.  43. 


398  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  DIOCESE  ;  DEATH  OF  DR.  CROSWELL ;  NEW 
CHURCH  AT  STRATFORD  ;  AND  EFFORTS  TO  INCREASE  THE 
RANKS    OF    THE   MINISTRY. 

a.  d.  1857-1860. 

Many  proofs  of  steady  and  continuous  growth  were 
now  visible  in  every  part  of  the  Diocese.  Its  clerical 
force,  —  besides  the  two  Bishops,  —  consisted  of  one 
hundred  and  thirteen  presbyters,  and  eleven  deacons. 
The  names  of  twenty-three  persons  appeared  on  the 
list  of  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  in  1857,  and  the 
number  was  the  same  two  years  later.  At  the  Annual 
Convention  of  1858,  which  was  held  in  Waterbury, 
ninety-five  of  the  clergy  of  the  Diocese  were  present, 
and  one  hundred  and  six  lay  delegates.  Bishop  Wil- 
liams, in  his  address  on  that  occasion,  noted  a  large 
list  of  clerical  changes  —  too  large  for  the  good  of  the 
Church ;  but  he  expressed  his  belief  that  the  action 
of  the  Convention  five  years  before,  in  regard  to  the 
increase  of  the  salaries  of  the  clergy,  had  served  to 
lessen  this  evil,  and  that  the  laity  had  it  in  their 
power,  if  they  pleased,  to  render  the  pastoral  relation 
more  permanent  in  the  future.  "  The  mere  perfunc- 
tory performance,"  said  he,  "  of  the  duties  of  preach- 
ing, administering  the  sacraments,  and  going  through 
with  services  and  offices,  can  be  as  well  done  by  an 
itinerant  ministry,  or  occasional  supplies,  as  in  any 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  399 

other  way.  But  to  secure  the  real  work  of  a  pastor, 
to  insure  that  it  shall  be  any  thing  more  than  an 
ephemeral  and  spasmodic  effort,  the  pastoral  relation 
must  be  made  an  enduring  one." 

A  remarkable  religious  interest  pervaded  Connecti- 
cut in  the  beginning  of  1858.  Unlike  revivals  in 
previous  years,  it  was  attended  with  no  special  excite- 
ment, and  the  influence  of  noted  preachers  in  orig- 
inating and  carrying  it  on  was  scarcely  perceptible. 
The  financial  embarrassments  of  the  country  led  men 
to  pause  in  their  career  of  worldliness,  and  daily 
prayer-meetings,  and  the  ordinary  instructions  of  the 
pulpit  on  Sundays,  and  occasionally  on  other  days, 
were  followed  by  the  conversion  of  many  sinners,  and 
their  pursuit  of  a  new  and  better  life. 

The  clergy  of  the  Church,  particularly  in  those 
places  where  the  revival  prevailed,  were  more  dili- 
gent in  their  ministrations,  and  probably  the  Lenten 
services  in  no  former  season  had  been  so  numerously 
attended.  The  number  confirmed  in  sixty-three  par- 
ishes of  the  Diocese,  as  reported  to  the  next  Annual 
Convention,  reached  eleven  hundred  and  twenty-five, 
and  of  these  confirmations,  nearly  one  fourth  were  for 
the  parishes  in  New  Haven.  The  religious  interest 
manifested  itself  very  largely  in  that  city,  and  the 
opportunity  was  improved  by  the  several  rectors,  to 
draw  together  their  flocks  more  frequently  for  the 
purposes  of  Christian  instruction,  and,  by  stirring 
appeals,  to  warm  the  hearts  of  established  believers, 
encourage  the  timid  and  the  wavering,  and  awaken 
the  careless  from  the  sleep  of  insensibility,  to  the  duty 
of  a  living  faith  in  the  Son  of  God,  and  of  practical 
obedience  to  His  laws. 


400  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

There  was  no  reaction  to  the  Episcopal  Church  in 
the  movements  and  results  of  this  revival.  During 
the  next  Conventional  year,  the  Assistant  Bishop 
visited  all  the  parishes  and  missionary  stations  in  the 
Diocese  except  four;  and  administered  the  rite  of 
confirmation  to  one  thousand  and  twenty-nine  per- 
sons. This  was  the  most  extended  visitation  which 
he  had  ever  made  in  any  one  year,  and  he  was  as 
much  gratified  as  surprised  to  find  so  soon  again 
large  classes  of  candidates  presented  for  the  Apostolic 
rite.  The  quiet  and  earnest  work  of  the  pastors 
seemed  to  be  producing  the  blessed  fruits  for  which 
some  of  them  had  patiently  waited.  The  aggregate 
of  communicants  in  the  whole  Diocese  went  up,  in 
1859,  to  eleven  thousand  and  five  hundred,  though 
the  loss  by  death  and  removal,  as  reported  at  the  same 
time,  was  fully  equal  to  one  third  of  the  yearly  in- 
crease by  new  admissions.  These  admissions,  from 
year  to  year,  coincided  for  the  most  part  with  the 
number  of  persons  confirmed,  —  it  having,  for  a  long 
period,  been  the  practice  of  the  clergy  to  teach  that 
"what  is  required  of  those  who  come  to  the  Lord's 
Supper,"  is  substantially  no  more  than  whnt  should  be 
required  of  those  who  present  themselves  for  the  rite 
of  Confirmation.  The  number  of  families,  too,  fell 
but  little  short  of  nine  thousand,  and  the  Sunday- 
schools  and  the  missionary  and  charitable  contribu- 
tions steadily  increased.    ■ 

One  by  one,  the  venerable  presbyters,  who,  since 
the  death  of  Bishop  Jarvis,  had  been  conspicuous 
actors  in  the  affairs  of  the  Diocese,  disappeared,  and 
left  their  places  to  be  filled  by  younger  men.  On  the 
last  day  of  December,  1854,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Croswell, 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  401 

Eector  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven,  preached  a 
sermon,  which  was  afterwards  published,  commemora- 
tive of  the  fortieth  anniversary  of  his  connection 
with  the  parish.  If  any  of  his  parishioners  were  dis- 
appointed that  the  occasion  was  not  more  largely 
improved  by  one  who  had  been  "  forty  years  in  the 
mount,"  his  brief  reminiscences  must  have,  at  least, 
touched  their  hearts,  and  made  them  grateful  to  God, 
for  the  vast  amount  of  parochial  duty  which  He  had 
enabled  His  servant  to  perform  in  the  several  offices 
of  the  Church. 

"  Forty  years,"  said  he,  "  constitute  a  large  portion, 
even  of  the  longest  life  ;  and  when  considered  with 
reference  to  the  relationship  between  pastor  and  peo- 
ple, it  seems,  indeed,  like  a  very  long  period.  Such 
instances  of  unbroken  pastoral  connection  are  ex- 
tremely rare,  and  especially  in  this  age  of  fluctuation 
and  change,  where  hearers  sometimes  become  fas- 
tidious, critical,  and  fond  of  novelty,  and  preachers 
exhibit  at  least  a  corresponding  degree  of  sensitive- 
ness, restlessness,  and  instability.  But  to  one  who 
has  been  permitted  to  enjoy  such  a  protracted  rela- 
tionship, the  passage  of  so  many  years  would  appear 
but  a  mere  span,  were  it  not  for  the  considerations 
that  present  themselves  to  the  mind  on  an  occasion 
like  the  present. 

"  I  stop  at  this  point  in  my  journey,  for  recollection 
and  review ;  and  who  can  tell  what  memories  crowd 
upon  the  thoughts?  Surrounded  by  the  same  parish, 
into  whose  service  I  entered  forty  years  ago,  what 
can  I  behold  to  show  its  identity  ?  What  has  become 
of  the  familiar  faces  of  my  immediate  contemporaries  ? 
Where  are  those  who  stood  with  me,  side  by  side,  at 

VOL.  II.  26 


402  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

that  period  ?  Alas  !  how  many  of  their  number  have 
passed  away !  How  few  continue  to  accompany  me 
on  the  short  remainder  of  my  journey !  Here  and 
there,  indeed,  a  senior's  voice  may  be  heard  in  the  con- 
gregation ;  and  they  verily  seem  like  the  last k  shak- 
ing of  the  olive  tree,  or  like  gleaning  grapes,  when 
the  vintage  is  done.'  But  as  for  the  residue, — 
they  have  risen  up  to  occupy  the  places  of  those  who 
have  gone  before  ;  and  the  generations  by  whom  I 
am  now  surrounded,  are  pressing  forward  to  fill  the 
ranks  vacated  by  their  predecessors.  But  still  an 
identity  may  be  traced.  It  is  the  same  parish.  Those 
who  have  grown  up  under  my  pastoral  care,  or  have 
been  gathered  from  the  fields,  constitute  but  one  and 
the  same  household.  All  maintain  the  same  relation- 
ship ;  and,  amid  perpetual  changes,  the  parish  remains 
the  same."  * 

Dr.  Croswell,  at  this  time,  had  an  associate  2  in  the 
rectorship,  and  for  many  years  he  had  not  been  with- 
out aid  in  his  ministrations.  He  dwelt  among  his 
own  people,  and  was  rarely  absent  from  his  post, 
but  his  strong  and  robust  constitution  was  beginning 
to  feel  the  effects  of  an  insidious  and  complicated 
disease,  and  he  finally  fell  before  it,  on  the  13th  of 
March,  1858,  when  he  was  approaching  his  eightieth 
birth-clay.  Bishop  Williams  preached  the  sermon  at 
his  funeral,  which  was  attended  by  a  great  concourse 
of  people,  and  by  forty-seven  of  his  brethren  in  the 
ministry,  —  a  larger  number  than  was  present  at  the 
special  Convention  of  the  Diocese  in  1819,  when 
Bishop  Brownell  was  consecrated. 

1  Sermon,  pp.  5,  6. 

2  Rev.  Thomas  C.  Pitkin,  D.  D.,  now  Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church, 
Detroit   Mich. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  403 

It  is  the  privilege  of  few  clergymen  to  pass  through 
a  life  of  such  varied  experience  and  momentous 
events  as  that  of  Dr.  Croswell.  He  was  brought  up 
to  the  occupation  of  a  printer,  and  in  early  manhood 
became  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  a  political  news- 
paper, published  first  in  Hudson,  and  then  in  Albany, 
N.  Y.  He  showed  much  talent  and  tact  in  that 
capacity,  and  gained  for  himself  the  confidence  and 
friendship  of  a  circle  of  distinguished  men.  Some  of 
his  severe  and  pungent  editorials  brought  him  into 
collision  with  his  political  foes,  and  being  prosecuted 
for  libel,  he  was  defended  by  Alexander  Hamilton  in 
a  speech,  remarkable  as  the  greatest  forensic  effort  of 
one  of  the  greatest  minds  of  his  age. 

The  arena  of  politics  proved  unsatisfactory  to  Mr. 
Croswell,  and  "turning  his  thoughts  to  the  solemn 
subject  of  religion,  and  the  Christian  duties  that  rest 
on  our  race,"  he  conformed  to  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  1812,  and  immediately  applied  his  vigorous  intel- 
lect to  the  study  of  theology.  From  the  time  of  his 
ordination  in  the  spring  of  1814,  until  his  removal  to 
New  Haven,  a  period  of  eight  months,  he  officiated  in 
Christ  Church,  Hudson.  It  has  been  seen,  in  previous 
chapters,  how  much  he  was  identified  with  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Church  in  his  native  state,  and  how  reso- 
lutely he  stood  up  to  defend  her  doctrines,  discipline, 
and  worship,  when  he  found  them  misrepresented  and 
maligned.  He  was  widely  known  in  our  communion, 
and  filled  the  most  important  posts  of  honor  and  use- 
fulness in  her  councils.  From  1816  till  the  day  of 
his  death,  he  was  chosen  uninterruptedly  by  the  Dio- 
cese, one  of  its  clerical  delegates  to  the  General  Con- 
vention, and  from  1822  to  1852,  when  he  declined  a 


404  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHUECH 

reelection,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Standing  Com- 
mittee. 

His  native  shrewdness  and  sagacity,  and  his  self-con- 
trol, gave  him  great  influence  in  public  bodies,  and  as 
a  manager  he  seemed  to  have  been  made  wiser  by 
the  experience  which  he  acquired  in  the  struggles  of 
political  life.  He  had  a  way  of  saying  sharp  things 
without  intending  to  give  offence,  and  he  sometimes 
spoke  disparagingly  or  sarcastically  of  those  who 
failed  to  come  up  to  his  own  standard  of  ritual  and 
churchmanship.  Though  not  a  scholar  himself,  and, 
therefore,  incapable  of  fully  appreciating  scholarship 
in  others,  he  was  better  read  than  most  busy  pastors 
in  polite  literature,  and  what  he  knew  of  the  works  of 
the  old  English  divines,  he  knew  well. 

But  his  chief  excellences  of  character  were  exhib- 
ited in  his  own  parish.  He  went  to  it  without  the 
advantages  and  supports  of  a  liberal  education,  and 
though  surrounded  by  the  culture  and  learning  of 
"  the  Standing  Order,"  he  so  bore  himself  in  his  pas- 
toral duties,  so  went  in  and  out  among  his  people,  so 
preached,  and  so  prayed,  that  "  the  word  of  God  grew 
and  multiplied,"  and  men  of  all  shades  of  opinion 
and  religious  belief,  became  reverent  admirers  of  his 
fidelity  to  the  Church,  and  of  his  kind  attentions  and 
ceaseless  charities  to  the  sick  and  the  needy.  He  was 
an  eminently  practical  and  instructive  preacher,  and 
his  style  of  writing  was  pure,  perspicuous,  and  free 
from  redundancy.  His  majestic  figure,  and  massive 
head,  crowned,  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life,  with 
silvery  hair,  invited  the  attention  of  a  congregation 
when  he  arose  before  it ;  and  a  stranger,  meeting  him 
in  the  streets,  would  have  been  struck  with  his  form 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  405 

as  that  of  a  Christian  gentleman  of  the  old  school.  It 
was  in  reference  to  this  that  his  gifted  son1  wrote 
the  lines  which  are  just  as  true  as  if  they  were  not 
prompted  by  filial  affection  :  — 

"  My  father,  proud  am  I  to  bear 

Thy  face,  thy  form,  thy  stature  ; 
But  happier  far,  might  I  but  share 
More  of  thy  better  nature." 

A  fitting  and  tasteful  monument,  erected  in  the 
chancel  of  Trinity  Church,  marks  the  remembrance 
and  gratitude  of  the  parish  for  his  long  continued  and 
faithful  services. 

The  death  of  Dr.  Croswell  was  followed  a  month 
later  by  that  of  the  Rev.  Zebediah  H.  Mansfield,  a 
graduate  of  Trinity  College,  and  still  in  the  prime  of 
his  usefulness.  He  returned  in  1854,  from  a  warmer 
climate  to  Norwich  Town,  and  the  home  of  his  child- 
hood, and  though  a  sufferer  from  disease  and  occupied 
to  some  extent  in  teaching,  he  rendered  important 
missionary  services  to  Yantic,  and  bequeathed  to  the 
parish  there  valuable  legacies,  which  will  cause  him 
to  be  held  in  grateful  and  lasting  remembrance.     In 

1  Rev.  William  Croswell,  D.  D.,  "  Poet,  Pastor,  Priest."  The  hand  of 
death  fell  upon  him  while  closing  the  services  in  the  Church  of  the  Advent, 
Boston,  of  which  he  was  Rector,  on  Sunday  afternoon,  November  9th, 
1851.  He  knelt  down  at  the  chancel  rail,  and  repeated  from  memory  — 
his  book  having  fallen  noiselessly  by  his  side  —  an  appropriate  collect. 
Unable  to  rise,  from  the  exhaustion  of  his  strength,  he  remained  on  his 
knees,  and  pronounced  with  faltering  voice  the  Apostolic  benediction.  A 
general  alarm  immediately  pervaded  the  congregation,  and  he  was  borne 
by  his  friends  through  the  church  to  the  vestry-room,  and  from  thence  in 
a  carriage  to  his  residence,  where  he  soon  ceased  to  be  mortal.  His 
bereaved  and  sorrowing  father  prepared  and  published,  in  an  octavo 
volume,  a  tender  "  Memoir "  of  him,  containing  not  only  a  somewhat 
minute  history  of  his  life,  but  many  of  his  charming  poetical  productions, 
and  extracts  from  his  voluminous  correspondence. 


406  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

his  first  report  to  the  Bishop,  after  his  return  to  the 
Diocese,  he  mentioned  his  ministrations  in  this  place, 
and  said  :  "  It  is  within  my  recollection  that  there  was 
but  one  church  in  Norwich,  and  the  congregation  not 
larger  than  the  new  parish  "  of  Grace  Church,  Yantic. 
As  the  venerable  presbyters  of  a  preceding  genera- 
tion  passed   away,  so  did  the  wooden  churches,  asso- 
ciated with  the  memories  of  colonial  times,  and  with 
the  labors   and  prayers   of  self-sacrificing  and  godly 
men.     Only    two    or    three    of  these  were    now   left 
standing.     That  which  belonged  to  the  oldest  parish 
in  the  Diocese,  Christ  Church,  Stratford,  was  the  most 
remarkable  of  them,  and  the  richest  in  historical  asso- 
ciations.    Around  it  clustered  the  memories  of  more 
than  a  century  —  memories  connected  with  the  first 
foundation  and  early  trials  of  Episcopacy  in  Connec- 
ticut.    Its  walls  had   echoed   with   the   voice  of  Dr. 
Johnson,  and    as    an    interesting    link,  uniting    them 
with  the  past,  the  people  cherished  it,  and  were  reluc- 
tant  to    take    the    necessary  steps    to   replace   it  by 
another  of  larger  dimensions,  and  more  in  accordance 
with  the  prevailing  style  of  ecclesiastical  architecture. 
But  the  prosperity  of  the  parish  and  the  march  of 
improvement    demanded    a    new  edifice,  and    friends 
from  abroad,  —  "they  of  the  city,"  —  mindful  of  the 
fragrant  blessings  of  the  Church  in  their  native  vil- 
lage, made  generous  contributions  to  aid  in  its  erec- 
tion.    It  was  constructed  of  wood,  in  the  Gothic  style, 
with  sittings  for  about  seven  hundred  and  fifty  per- 
sons, and  is  the  third  house  of  worship  built  by  the 
parish.      It  was  consecrated  by  Bishop  Williams,  on 
the  29th  of  July,  1858,  one   hundred    and   fourteen 
years    after    its    immediate    predecessor    had    been 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  407 

opened  with  suitable  services  by  Dr.  Johnson.  He 
described  that  second  temple  in  one  of  his  letters  to 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  as 
"  almost  finished  in  a  very  neat  and  elegant  manner, 
the  architecture  being  allowed  in  some  things  to 
exceed  anything  done  before  in  New  England." 

At  the  time  of  the  consecration  of  the  new  church, 
a  scene  was  presented  in  Stratford  very  different  from 
the  one  witnessed  there  a  century  and  a  half  before, 
when  Heathcote  and  Muirson  rode  into  the  village, 
and  were  met  with  vehement  opposition  because  they 
came  to  initiate  the  services  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land. They  came  upon  the  invitation  of  a  few 
families,  who  were  attached  to  the  faith  of  their  fore- 
fathers, and  desirous  of  worshipping  God  in  the  forms 
of  the  Liturgy.  But  how  changed  now  !  Instead  of 
the  lone  presbyter  appearing  with  his  lone  attendant, 
and  seeking  in  some  private  dwelling  to  "  sign  with 
the  sign  of  the  cross,"  a  child  in  baptism,  or  to  minis- 
ter to  a  little  despised  flock,  forty-nine  clergymen 
approached  the  village  in  various  groups,  and  from 
different  places,  and  uniting  in  a  surpliced  band  with 
a  bishop  at  their  head,  entered  the  newly  erected  edi- 
fice, and  were  welcomed  by  a  waiting  multitude,  who 
joined  them  in  the  glad  response,  "  This  is  the  gen- 
eration of  them  that  seek  him ;  even  of  them  that 
seek  thy  face,  0  Jacob."  The  sermon  at  the  consecra- 
tion was  preached  by  the  writer  of  these  pages,  and 
published  at  the  request  of  the  vestry  of  the  parish, 
and  whatever  merit  it  possessed  was  due  to  "  an 
occasion  fraught  with  holy  memories,  and  suggesting 
the  most  solemn  and  weighty  duties." 

Additions  to  the  sacred  edifices  of  the  Diocese,  and 


408  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

improvements  in  the  old  ones,  still  continued.  A  new 
parish  was  formed  in  an  outlying  district  of  Bridge- 
port, by  the  name  of  the  Church  of  the  Nativity,  and 
a  neat  though  small  structure  of  stone  was  conse- 
crated for  it  in  the  middle  of  January,  1859.  Three 
weeks  later,  the  corner-stone  of  a  church  for  the  new 
parish  of  St.  James,  Glastenbury,  was  laid,  and  not 
long  after,  a  similar  ceremony  was  performed  for  St. 
Mark's  Church,  Bridgewater.  "  Up  to  the  second 
Sunday  in  August,  1859,  no  service  of  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  had  ever  been  celebrated  in  that  part 
of  the  town  of  Farmington  "  called  Plainville.  Lay 
reading  was  then  commenced  by  a  candidate  for  Holy 
Orders,  who,  shortly  before,  was  a  licentiate  among 
the  Congregationalists,  and  supplied  their  church  in 
that  place.  An  Episcopal  parish  was  duly  organized, 
and  a  convenient  brick  church  erected,  and  conse- 
crated Tuesday,  in  Easter  week,  1860.  On  the  follow- 
ing Tuesday,  another  "beautiful  structure"  of  brick 
was  consecrated  for  St.  Andrew's  Church,  Thomp- 
sonville,  —  a  manufacturing  village  in  the  town  of 
Enfield.  This  was  a  new  parish  admitted  into  union 
with  the  Convention  in  1855.  Internal  troubles  in 
the  ancient  parish  at  Simsbury,  the  scene  of  the 
labors  of  the  unfortunate  Gibbs,  and  the  faithful  Viets, 
led  to  the  formation  in  1849,  of  Trinity  Church,  TarifF- 
ville,  at  that  time  a  prosperous  village  of  the  town, 
where  carpets  were  extensively  manufactured.  The 
church  of  the  Presbyterian  Society  was  ultimately 
purchased  and  fitted  up  for  our  services,  and  a  clergy- 
man sustained  there  by  the  people,  with  the  aid  of 
appropriations  from  the  Missionary  fund.  During 
the  next  month,  the  ground  was  broken  for  a  chapel 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  409 

at  South  Norwalk,  and  for  another  at  Stamford.  They 
were  respectively  projected  by  the  mother  parishes  in 
those  places,  and  a  conviction  that  they  were  needed 
to  meet  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  people,  was  not  too 
soon  put  into  practice.  They  were  built  of  stone, 
capacious  enough  to  hold  several  hundred  persons, 
and  the  worshippers  in  them  have  since  organized 
into  independent  parishes,  each  one  of  which  is  now 
supplied  with  a  rector,  to  whom  a  liberal  salary  is 
paid.  A  neat  stone  church  was  commenced  in  the 
summer  of  1856,  for  the  new  parish  in  Darien  —  a 
town  about  midway  between  Norwalk  and  Stamford  ; 
and  though  finished,  and  an  object  of  interest  to  its 
little  band  of  devoted  supporters,  it  was  not  conse- 
crated, owing  to  the  encumbrance  of  a  debt,  until 
early  in  the  spring  of  1863. 

Connecticut  was  now  better  supplied  with  clergy- 
men than  at  any  former  period.  She  had  twenty- 
three  candidates  for  Holy  Orders,  nearly  all  of  whom 
were  pursuing  their  studies  at  the  Berkeley  Divinity 
School,  and  scarcely  a  parish  within  her  borders  was 
destitute  of  a  minister.  But  a  like  favorable  state- 
ment could  not  be  made  of  other  Dioceses  in  our 
land.  The  new  ones  were  rapidly  filling  up  with  an 
active  and  intelligent  population,  and  their  bishops 
were  constantly  calling  for  more  men  of  the  right 
stamp  to  do  "  the  work  of  the  ministry  "  —  men  of 
holy  and  unselfish  character,  who  were  willing  to  take 
the  risk  of  a  support  anywhere,  or  rather  to  depend 
mainly  on  opening  the  fountains  of  charity  and  grace 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people  for  aid  and  sympathy  in 
carrying  out  the  design  and  offices  of  the  Church. 
None    of  the  old    and   favored    Dioceses  were    over- 


410  HISTORY  OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

stocked  with  working  clergy,  and  vacant  parishes  in 
any  of  them  were  generally  filled  by  turning  to 
quarters  where  there  was  the  greatest  supply.  This 
was  the  natural  course  of  things,  and  Connecticut 
continued  to  be  the  bed  from  which  many  flowers 
were  transplanted  to  grace  other  gardens. 

The  ranks  of  her  ministry  would  have  been  thin- 
ner, but  for  the  agency  of  the  "  Church  Scholarship 
Society  "  —  a  strictly  Diocesan  institution.  As  this 
failed  to  reach  the  great  want  of  the  whole  Church,  a 
scheme  of  wider  influence  was  projected  and  carried 
into  operation.  Bishop  Williams,  in  his  address  to  the 
Convention  of  1859,  speaking  of  the  number  of  can- 
didates for  Holy  Orders,  said  :  — 

"  In  this  connection,  I  would  call  attention  to  the 
'  Society  for  the  Increase  of  the  Ministry,' 1  organized 
about  a  year  ago,  but  lately  incorporated  by  the 
Legislature  of  this  State,  and  commencing  its  labors 
under  flattering  auspices,  and  with  every  prospect  of 
eminent  success.  The  favor  with  which  it  has  already 
been  received  by  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  Diocese, 
may,  I  trust,  be  regarded  as  only  the  beginning  of  an 
ever  increasing  interest  in  the  important  duty  which 
it  has  undertaken.     Let  the  heart  of  the  Church  be 

1  The  "  Society  for  the  Increase  of  the  Ministry  "  originated  in  Connec- 
ticut, and  the  first  public  meeting  after  its  organization  was  held  in  Hart- 
ford, on  the  last  day  of  June,  1858.  The  officers  chosen  were  chiefly 
from  New  England,  and  this  gave  an  impression  abroad  that  it  was  to  be 
an  institution  of  a  local  character.  But  the  Society,  which  from  neces- 
sity appeared  to  be  local  in  its  earliest  movements,  soon  became  general 
in  its  work,  and  furnished  practical  evidence  that  it  was  not  to  operate  in 
favor  of  one  particular  section  of  the  country.  "  The  object  of  this  corpora- 
tion," as  defined  by  the  charter,  "  shall  be  to  furnish  means  for  the  educa- 
tion of  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of 
the  United  States." 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  411 

fully  roused  to  the  real  grandeur  of  the  work  which 
is  here  opening  before  her,  for  the  increase  of  a  well- 
trained  and  educated  ministry,  and  it  will  afford  the 
best  of  all  possible  endowments ;  an  endowment  the 
income  from  which  will  be  made  living  in  prayer  and 
love,  and  bless  alike  givers  and  receivers  to  the  glory 
of  their  God  and  Saviour." 

The  General  Convention,  held  at  Richmond,  in  the 
autumn  of  the  same  year,  appointed  a  large  commit- 
tee of  laymen  for  the  recess,  with  instructions  "to 
devise  and  carry  out  such  means  and  measures  as 
they  might  deem  advisable,"  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Church ;  and  especially  to  impress  upon  their  lay 
brethren  the  great  necessity  for  more  ministers.  The 
same  Convention,  in  view  of  the  impossibility  of  sup- 
plying regular  clerical  services  in  parishes  and  con- 
gregations already  in  existence,  "  earnestly  requested 
the  parochial  clergy  to  bring  the  Church's  pressing 
need  of  additional  laborers  before  their  respective 
congregations,"  and  also  to  solicit  from  them  con- 
tributions to  aid  in  the  education  of  indigent  and 
deserving  young  men  seeking  admission  into  the 
sacred  ministry.  The  next  year,  1860,  the  number 
of  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  in  Connecticut  rose  to 
twenty-eight,  and  it  may  have  increased  in  a  similar 
ratio  in  several  of  the  older  Dioceses ;  but  upon  the 
breaking  out  of  civil  war,  and  the  general  prostration 
and  derangement  of  business  during  its  frightful  deso- 
lations, the  call  to  arms  was  made  a  paramount  duty, 
and  the  country  demanded  for  services  in  the  field 
the  freshness  and  flower  of  her  youth.  Under  these 
circumstances,  the  candidates  for  the  ministry  were 
slightly  diminished,  and  the  yearly  number  in  Con- 
necticut has  not  been  so  high  since  that  date. 


412  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

The  necessity  for  them,  however,  in  this  Diocese 
and  throughout  the  country  has  not  ceased.  For 
never  did  the  Church  require  a  larger  supply  of  edu- 
cated, intellectual,  and  judicious  ministers.  The 
spread  of  knowledge,  the  propagation  of  infidel  opin- 
ions, and  the  secret  growth  of  loose  views  in  religion 
and  morality,  all  render  it  more  than  ever  important 
that  candidates  for  the  ministry  should  not  only  be 
multiplied,  but  be  well  trained  and  taught,  and  fitted 
for  their  godly  work.  There  is  much  for  Christian 
men  to  do  in  the  way  of  checking  the  progress  of 
moral  evil.  The  lapse  of  years  has  not  changed  the 
truth  of  what  Bishop  Williams  said  in  his  sermon 
before  the  Diocesan  Convention  of  1857  :  — 

"  Surely,  in  an  age  and  land  like  ours,  where  wealth, 
and  the  worldliness  and  luxury  that  wait  on  wealth, 
are  pouring  in  upon  us ;  when  that  simple  state  of 
society,  which  was  at  once  our  pride  and  safeguard, 
is  giving  way  to  an  artificial  civilization,  which  ever 
bears  in  its  bosom  the  elements  of  the  most  fearful 
barbarism;  when,  before  this  tide  of  worldliness,  pub- 
lic morality  is  falling  to  a  lower  standard,  the  private 
life  is  sinking  to  a  lower  level,  the  *  old  domestic 
morals  of  the  land,'  are  becoming  matters  of  history; 
when  all  this  is  so,  then,  I  say,  it  does  become  us, 
clergy  and  people  alike,  to  see  to  it,  each  for  our- 
selves, each  in  our  place  and  station,  that  something 
shall  be  done  to  stay  the  plague. " 1 

1  Sermon,  pp.  18,  19. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  413 


CHAPTER   XXIX. 

CONVENTION  AT  NEW  LONDON;   DIOCESAN  MISSIONS;   EPISCOPAL 
DUTIES;  CIVIL  WAR;  AND  DEATHS  AMONG  THE  CLERGY. 

A.  D.   1860-1862. 

The  opening  of  a  railway,  through  the  towns  along 
the  shore  from  New  Haven  to  New  London,  made  the 
latter  place  more  convenient  of  access  by  residents 
in  the  interior  and  western  parts  of  the  State.  The 
power  of  steam  tends  to  annihilate  distances,  and  the 
Annual  Convention  which  met  at  New  London,  in 
1860,  was  as  numerously  attended  as  the  same  Con- 
vention which  assembled  in  Waterbury  two  years 
before.  The  interest  of  the  laity  in  the  legislation 
of  the  Church  carried  their  delegates  to  these  yearly 
gatherings,  and  by  a  canon  of  the  Diocese,  it  is  de- 
clared to  be  "  the  duty  of  every  clergyman,  having  a 
seat  in  the  Convention,  to  attend  every  meeting  of 
the  same,  or  send  a  reasonable  excuse  to  the  Bishop 
for  his  absence." 

The  Convention  at  New  London  was  marked  by  an 
effort  to  introduce  greater  efficiency  into  the  work  of 
Diocesan  Missions.  Discontent  with  the  operations 
of  the  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Christian  Knowl- 
edge, and  also  with  its  cherished  title,  prevailed  to 
some  extent,  and  nine  clergymen  from  different  sec- 
tions of  the  Diocese  were  appointed  a  committee  to 
"  inquire  into  the  character  and  condition  of  the  mis- 


414  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

sionary  work,"  with  instructions  to  present  to  the 
next  Annual  Convention  any  further  measures  that 
might  be  deemed  necessary  to  excite  in  its  behalf 
more  zeal  and  sympathy  among  churchmen.  Time 
was  thus  given  for  considering  the  subject,  in  order 
that  the  several  members  of  the  committee  might 
have  an  opportunity  to  produce  such  statistical  and 
other  information  as  would  lead  to  satisfactory  results 
and  conclusions.  The  year  went  round,  and  they  had 
embodied  their  researches  and  views  in  an  elaborate 
report,  which  covers  nearly  six  closely  printed  pages 
of  the  Journal.  Testimony  was  borne  in  it  to  the 
immense  good  accomplished  by  the  Society  in  former 
days;  and  while  "the  Church  in  Connecticut  seemed 
called  to  a  bolder  and  more  enlarged  line  of  effort," 
the  debt  of  gratitude  for  its  humble  charities  to  feeble 
and  destitute  parishes,  was  not  to  be  forgotten. 

"  There  are  two  forms  of  Church  work  and  Church 
growth,"  said  the  committee,  "  which  may  be  respec- 
tively called  the  spontaneous  and  the  aggressive. 
Hitherto  the  Church  in  this  Diocese  has  confined  her- 
self almost  exclusively  to  the  former.  But  she  will 
never  fulfill  her  mission  till  she  enters  upon  and  pros- 
ecutes the  latter  energetically.  Hitherto  she  has 
grown  as  the  plant  grows  that  sends  out  its  leaders, 
and  multiplies  by  their  clinging  to  the  neighboring 
soil,  and  repeating  itself  in  the  spot  to  which  they 
adhere.  When  from  any  cause  an  interest  in  favor 
of  the  Church  has  sprung  up  in  any  locality,  and 
measures  have  already  been  taken  in  her  favor,  she 
has  recognized  the  movement,  and  extended  to  it  her 
fostering  care.  But  she  has  followed,  not  led.  Rarely 
has  she  gone  into  any  place,  and  set  up  her  Master's 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  415 

banner,  and  called  men  to  enroll  themselves  under  her 
standard,  and  stood  among  them,  and  proclaimed  the 
truth,  and  patiently  waited  to  see  the  effect.  Yet 
this  is  true  missionary  work,  and  without  it  she  will 
never  diffuse  herself  through  the  land,  and  do  her 
Master's  work  as  it  ought  to  be  done.  There  is  a 
multitude  of  places  where  the  Church  is  scarcely 
known  and  greatly  needed,  and  where,  by  suitable 
efforts,  she  could  be  firmly  established  and  perma- 
nently maintained,  if  her  services  were  sent  to  them, 
and  steadily  and  perseveringly  sustained.  It  will  not 
do  to  wait  till  we  are  invited  to  come.  It  will  not  do 
to  expect  the  people  to  pay  for  the  services  to  any 
considerable  extent.  This  supposes  the  previous  ex- 
istence of  the  very  interest  which  it  is  the  object  of 
true  missionary  work  to  awaken.  There  are  places 
where  a  prejudice  exists  against  a  paid  clergy,  who 
are  stigmatized  as  hirelings  —  the  fruit  of  fanatical 
excitements  that  began  more  than  a  century  ago. 
What  is  needed  is  that  suitable  men  should  be  sent 
upon  the  ground,  sufficiently  paid,  and  kept  there 
long  enough  to  give  the  experiment  a  fair  trial." 

The  Convention,  in  accepting  the  report,  adopted  a 
series  of  resolutions,  the  object  of  which  was  to  create 
a  greater  interest  throughout  the  Diocese  in  the  work 
of  its  missionary  organization.  As  no  economy  would 
enable  the  Society  to  do  its  appropriate  work  without 
a  greatly  enlarged  income,  the  Board  of  Directors  was 
required  to  hold  four  public  services,  during  the  year, 
at  such  times  and  places  as  the  Convention  might 
designate,  and  by  addresses  and  statements  of  facts 
to  stimulate  churchmen  to  be  more  liberal  in  their 
contributions  to  Diocesan  Missions.     In  view  of  the 


416  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

necessity  of  special  attention  to  the  spiritual  wants  of 
many  neglected  places,  it  was  further  recommended 
to  the  Board  to  appoint  at  least  one  itinerant  Mission- 
ary "  to  explore,  and  as  far  as  may  be,  occupy  the 
vacant  fields  of  the  Diocese." 

The  result  of  these  new  movements  was  not  as 
beneficial  as  had  been  hoped  for  and  anticipated. 
The  quarterly  missionary  meetings  were  held  on 
week  days,  and  therefore,  large  congregations  were 
not  generally  drawn  out  to  hear  the  appeals  and 
statements  of  the  Directors.  Some  progress,  however, 
was  made,  and  the  annual  amount  afterwards  received 
from  collections  in  all  the  parishes  compared  favor- 
ably with  those  reported  in  preceding  years.  But  the 
stream  of  sympathy,  and  of  alms,  did  not  rise  high 
enough  for  the  necessities  of  the  Church.  An  itiner- 
ant  Missionary  was  sent  into  the  destitute  localities 
lying  east  of  the  Connecticut  Eiver ;  but  his  solitary 
work  was,  for  the  most  part,  confined  to  a  survey  of 
the  whole  field  —  essential,  indeed,  to  intelligent  action 
in  selecting  the  best  places  for  building  up  parishes; 
but  not  reaching  to  the  extent  of  occupying  them,  or 
even  of  supplying  them  with  stated  ministrations. 

The  western  and  southern  portions  of  the  State, 
especially  the  Counties  of  New  Haven,  Fairfield,  and 
Litchfield,  afforded,  at  this  time,  the  least  room  for 
missionary  effort.  Scarcely  in  any  of  them  might  a 
call  for  the  services  of  our  Church  be  made  without 
finding  a  response  from  some  parochial  clergyman. 
Only  three  or  four  towns,  and  those  thinly  inhab- 
ited, either  in  New  Haven,  or  Fairfield  County,  were 
destitute  of  houses  of  Episcopal  worship.  A  few  of 
the  towns  had  several,  and  the  Church  in  these  sec- 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  417 

tions  was  full  of  vigor  and  steadily  progressing.  But 
this  could  not  be  said  of  the  eastern  and  northeastern 
parts  of  the  Diocese.  The  counties  of  Windham  and 
Tolland,  as  a  whole,  were  the  most  spiritually  desti- 
tute, and  presented  some  of  the  best  openings  for  the 
introduction  of  faithful  missionary  labor.  More  atten- 
tion has  since  been  given  to  them,  and  liberal  and 
special  contributions  made  to  sustain  the  services  of 
the  Church  in  places  where  there  seemed  to  be  rapidly 
rising  a  flood  of  "  that  evil  which  is  worse  even  than 
original  heathenism  —  the  evil  of  a  lost  Christianity." 

Bishop  Williams  opened  his  annual  address  in  1861, 
with  these  words  :  — 

"  Ten  years  have  elapsed  since  I  was  elected  by  the 
Convention  of  this  Diocese  to  the  office  of  its  Assist- 
ant Bishop,  and  it  may  not  be  amiss,  that,  before  I 
present  the  customary  statistics,  I  should  lay  before 
you  a  summary  view  of  the  period,  which  this  clay 
closes.  Ten  years  form  a  large  part  of  an  average 
Episcopate,  and  one  who  has  gone  through  them  can- 
not but  feel  that  he  has  reached  a  point,  the  like  to 
which  he  very  probably  will  never  reach  again.  In 
some  sort,  then,  a  summing  up  of  such  a  period  is  like 
the  summing  up  of  all  one's  stewardship ;  and  though 
the  briefly  stated  results  cover  but  little  space,  and 
occupy  but  little  time  in  the  statement,  yet  they  are 
surrounded  with  thoughts  and  memories,  with  hopes 
and  fears,  with  consciousness  of  shortcomings  and 
failures,  with  joys  and  sorrows,  that  give  to  the  other- 
wise dry  statistics,  at  least  for  him  who  makes  them, 
a  very  real  and  a  very  solemn  life. 

"Seven  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty-four  per- 
sons have  received  the  laying  on  of  hands. 

VOL.  II.  27 


418  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

"  Eighty-five  candidates  for  Holy  Orders  have  been 
ordained  to  the  Diaconate. 

"  Sixty-five  Deacons  have  been  ordained  to  the 
Priesthood. 

"  Twenty-eight  churches  and  chapels  have  been 
consecrated,  and  two,  which  have  been  erected,  and 
are  in  use,  are  awaiting  consecration  —  making  thirty 
new  churches  and  chapels  in  all. 

"Twenty-four  churches  have  been  reopened  after 
enlargements  and  improvements  in  various  ways.  So 
that  fifty-four  churches  and  chapels  have  been  built, 
or  re-edified  and  enlarged. 

"  During  the  period  under  review,  I  have  preached 
on  one  thousand  four  hundred  and  seventy-three  occa- 
sions, delivered  six  hundred  and  two  confirmation  and 
other  addresses,  and  administered  the  Holy  Commun- 
ion two  hundred  and  twenty  times.  It  ought  also  to 
be  recorded,  with  feelings  of  devout  gratitude  for 
God's  protecting  mercy,  that  in  travelling  more  than 
fifty-nine  thousand  miles,  I  have  met  with  no  serious 
accident,  and  very  rarely  with  even  a  detention, 
though  illness  has  sometimes  prevented  me  from  ful- 
filling my  appointments. 

"  From  among  the  clergy  we  have  lost  thirteen  by 
death.  One  hundred  and  sixteen  have  taken  letters 
dimissory,  and  left  the  Diocese.  Eighty-one  have 
been  received  from  other  Dioceses.  This  makes  our 
loss  by  death  and  removal  exceed,  by  forty-eight,  the 
number  received  from  other  quarters,  and  yet  through 
our  accessions  by  ordination  the  roll  of  clergy  has 
increased  from  one  hundred  and  ten  to  one  hundred 
and  forty-five.  I  mention  this  more  especially  because 
it  demonstrates  the  necessity  of  Trinity  College  and 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  419 

the  Divinity  School  to  the  efficient  working  of  the 
Diocese,  and  shows  that  by  their  agency  we  can  not 
only  supply  our  own  wants,  but  also  furnish  pastors 
for  other  portions  of  the  Church." 

In  closing  this  retrospect,  grateful  mention  was 
made  of  the  "  paternal  kindness  and  confidence,"  re- 
ceived from  the  senior  Bishop.  For  several  years,  his 
advanced  age  and  bodily  infirmities  had  disqualified 
him  for  the  performance  of  any  of  the  active  duties 
of  the  Episcopate ;  but  he  was  still  a  judicious  coun- 
sellor, who  "had  understanding  of  the  times,"  and 
"  knew  what  Israel  ought  to  do." 

New  and  startling  events  now  occurred  in  the  civil 
and  political  history  of  the  country.  All  the  better 
blessings  of  "unity,  peace,  and  concord,"  were  for- 
gotten amid  the  rage  of  envenomed  feelings,  and  un- 
governed  passions,  and  the  excitement  of  mustering 
hosts  for  the  battle  was  followed  by  actual  warfare. 
The  foot  of  civil  strife  was  treading  wildly,  and  the 
land  was  overspread  with  oppressive  gloom.  The 
dismemberment  of  the  national  Union,  under  which 
all  sections  had  been  signally  prospered  and  blessed, 
was  attempted,  and  a  fearful  expense  of  life  and 
treasure,  of  suffering  and  sorrow,  was  before  the  coun- 
try. In  such  an  alarming  crisis,  the  Church  could 
not  remain  unaffected,  and  her  clergy  and  laity  had 
momentous  duties  to  perform.  While  no  political 
revulsions  can  furnish  any  excuse  for  overlooking  the 
infinitely  great  interests  of  the  soul,  a  godly  submis- 
sion to  the  laws  and  constitutional  rulers  of  the  land 
is  ever  a  matter  of  religious  obligation,  —  and  no- 
where is  this  submission  more  faithfully  taught  than 
in  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church. 


420  HISTORY    OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Bishop  Williams,  in  his  address  for  1861,  referred  to 
the  national  troubles,  and  uttered  sentiments  and  sug- 
gestions in  unison  with  the  feelings  of  the  Conven- 
tion. It  would  be  doing  injustice  to  him,  to  withhold 
from  the  reader  the  following  extended  extract :  — 

"  Brethren,  this  seventy-seventh  Convention  of  our 
Diocese  meets  in  a  crisis  of  our  country's  history, 
which  few  of  us,  probably,  had  ever  anticipated. 
Until  within  the  last  few  months,  we  had  been  fain 
to  believe  that  the  forces  which  bound  together  the 
different  portions  of  this  great  Republic  were  so  much 
stronger  than  those  which  tended  to  separation,  that 
under  all  misunderstandings  and  jealousies  there  was 
such  a  substantial  basis  of  mutual  good-will  and  com- 
mon interest;  that,  in  a  word,  there  was  such  a  national 
life  and  unity  among  us,  that  we  were  as  safe  as  any 
human  government  could  make  us.  And  it  certainly 
appeared,  in  contrasting  our  condition  for  fifteen  years 
past,  with  that  of  almost  all  other  civilized  countries, 
as  if  we  had  grounds  for  this  belief.  '  Our  country,' 
to  use  the  eloquent  words  of  a  late  English  states- 
man, '  was  as  a  land  of  Goshen.  Everywhere  else 
were  the  thunder  and  the  fire  running  along  the 
ground,  a  very  grievous  storm,  such  as  there  was 
none  like  it  since  man  was  on  the  earth,  and  yet 
everything  tranquil  here  ;  and  then,  again,  thick  night, 
darkness  that  might  be  felt,  and  yet  light  in  all  our 
dwellings.'  But  the  storm  and  the  darkness  are  upon 
us  now,  and  the  season  of  fierce  trial  has  overtaken 
us. 

"  At  such  a  time,  it  could  hardly  be  expected  that 
an  Episcopal  Address  should  contain  no  allusion  to 
our  special  duties  as  Christian  ministers  and  people, 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  421 

no  words  of  counsel  or  suggestion.  My  words  will  be 
few;  but  uttered,  let  me  say,  with  a  deep  sense  of 
the  responsibility  which  they  involve,  and  a  constant 
remembrance  that  they  are  spoken  in  a  Council  of 
that  Kingdom,  which  is  not  of  this  world.  I  am 
authorized  to  say  that  they  are  spoken  for  the  Bishop 
of  the  Diocese  as  well  as  for  myself. 

"  It  is  a  great  comfort  that  our  chief  duty  in  this 
exigency  is  so  plain  before  us,  that  we  need  not  be 
perplexed  or  at  any  loss  about  it.  It  is  a  great  com- 
fort, too,  that  in  bringing  it  home  to  ourselves,  or,  if 
such  be  our  office,  urging  it  upon  others,  we  have  only 
to  follow  on  in  that  line  of  teaching  which  our  Church 
has  always  commended  to  us,  and  placed  before  us. 
We  have  no  new  lessons  on  this  point  to  learn,  no  old 
lessons  to  unlearn. 

"  Our  American  Prayer  Book,  as  doubtless  we  all 
remember,  was  adopted  in  1789,  two  years  after  the 
framing  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Since  then, 
every  child  in  our  communion  has  been  taught  as  a 
part  of  his  Christian  vocation,  'to  honor  and  obey 
the  civil  authority.'  On  all  ordinary  occasions  of  our 
public  worship,  when  that  book  has  been  used  in  its 
integrity,  we  have  prayed  for  the  'President  of  the 
United  States,  and  all  others  in  authority ; '  and  regu- 
larly besought  the  good  Lord  to  deliver  us  from  i  sedi- 
tion, privy  conspiracy,  and  rebellion.'  Our  articles 
were  adopted  in  1801 ;  and  the  XXXVIIth  of  these 
declares,  '  The  power  of  the  Civil  Magistrate  extend- 
eth  to  all  men,  as  well  clergy  as  laity,  in  all  things 
temporal;  but  hath  no  authority  in  things  purely 
spiritual.  And  we  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  all  men 
who  are  professors  of  the   Gospel,  to  pay  respectful 


422  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

obedience  to  the  civil  authority,  regularly  and  legiti- 
mately constituted.' 

"Such  is  the  clear,  outspoken,  unmistakable  teach- 
ing of  our  Church ;  and  it  does  but  echo  the  teaching 
and  injunction  of  God's  Holy  Word.  Whenever  and 
wherever  her  ministers  have  taught  anything  else, 
they  have  done  it  in  plain  dereliction  of  their  duty, 
and  in  contravention  of  their  ordination  vows.  So  far 
as  we  in  this  Diocese  are  concerned,  I  have  never 
known  or  heard  of  any  other  teaching.  'Through 
evil  report  and  good  report,  applauded  or  condemned,' 
we  have  always  taught  that '  every  soul '  is  e  to  be  sub- 
ject to  the  higher  powers ;  for  there  is  no  power  but 
of  God,  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God ; '  and 
that  this  subjection  is  'not  only  for  wrath,  but  also  for 
conscience  sake.' 

"  And  what  else  need  we  teach  now,  in  regard  to 
the  great  question  that  stirs  the  depths  of  this  nation's 
heart  ?  Surely,  there  is  no  room  for  the  least  doubt 
as  to  what  and  where  that  civil  authority  is,  to 
which,  as  '  regularly  and  legitimately  constituted,'  we 
are  bound  '  to  pay  respectful  obedience.'  Surely,  if 
this  teaching  had  been  everywhere  received,  and  acted 
on  as  a  part  of  a  Christian's  personal  religion,  things 
would  never  have  come  to  the  pass  which  they  have 
reached  now. 

"Here,  then,  I  am  content  to  leave  this  matter. 
Patriotism,  loyalty,  every  sentiment  and  every  emo- 
tion, which  man  can  know  in  his  relations  to  the 
State,  find  their  living  utterance  and  only  true  life  in 
loyal  obedience  to  the  lawful  government  under 
which  we  live.  Apart  from  that  obedience,  they  are 
utterly  valueless,  and  become  empty  words.     When 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  423 

then,  Christ's  ministers  teach  that,  they  teach  all  the 
rest ;  they  teach  what  God's  own  Word  declares  ;  they 
teach  what  their  vows  of  ordination  bind  them  to  in- 
culcate." 

As  the  battle-fields  of  the  civil  war  were  remote 
from  New  England,  the  clergy  in  Connecticut  were 
not  disturbed  in  their  pastoral  relations,  except  that 
a  few  of  them  fell  under  the  operation  of  drafts  for 
troops  by  the  General  Government.  They  were  re- 
lieved, however,  by  the  provision  of  substitutes,  and 
devoting  themselves  to  their  ministerial  duties,  the 
Church  continued  quietly  to  gain  in  numbers  and  in 
strength.  With  some  minds  under  divine  grace,  the 
tendency  of  national  anxieties  and  excitements  is  to 
lead  them  nearer  to  God,  while  with  others,  —  and 
this  is  the  more  general  effect,  —  it  is  to  carry  them 
away  from  Him,  to  make  His  Word  less  precious,  His 
holy  day  less  sacredly  regarded,  and  the  ordinances 
of  religion  less  faithfully  observed.  The  present  peril 
is  ever  more  absorbing  than  the  future,  and  in  such  a 
crisis  the  contributions  and  sympathies  of  Christians 
naturally  follow  their  thoughts,  and  go  largely  to  the 
relief  and  consolation  of  those  who  have  enlisted  in 
the  service  of  their  country,  and  become  disabled  by 
wounds  or  sickness. 

But  much  was  now  done  also  for  the  advancement 
of  the  Church  and  her  institutions.  In  the  changes 
of  private  fortune,  which  war  commonly  produces, 
the  ability  of  many  to  multiply  their  gifts  to  Christian 
charities  was  suddenly  increased,  and  different  sections 
of  the  Diocese  reaped  advantages  from  special  efforts 
of  benevolence  made  easier  by  an  expanded  currency. 
In   some   cases,  parish  debts  of  long  standing  were 


424  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

liquidated,  and  churches  relieved  from  embarrassment, 
showed  new  life  and  vigor,  and  responded  liberally  to 
appeals  for  external  objects.  According  to  the  sum- 
mary of  parochial  reports  in  1862,  the  contributions 
to  these  objects  for  the  previous  Conventional  year 
amounted  to  upwards  of  forty  thousand  dollars,  and 
were  nearly  equal  to  those,  "  not  including  ordinary 
expenses,''  furnished  for  purposes  within  the  parishes. 

Death  again  fell  among  the  elder  clergy  of  the 
Diocese ;  and  the  list  no  longer  contained  the  familiar 
names  of  David  Baldwin,  Stephen  Jewett,  Ambrose  S. 
Todd,  and  Nathaniel  S.  Wheaton. 

Mr.  Baldwin,  who  wras  the  senior  presbyter  of  Con- 
necticut, died  in  August,  1862,  and  Mr.  Jewett  in  the 
same  month  of  the  preceding  year.  They  were  both 
ordained  by  Bishop  Jarvis,  and  one  for  a  quarter  of  a 
century  was  rector  of  the  parish  at  Guilford,  where 
he  continued  to  reside  after  relinquishing  it ;  and  the 
balance  of  his  ministerial  life  was  devoted  to  the 
service  of  feeble  churches  in  that  vicinity.  Mr.  Jewett 
for  thirteen  years  held  the  cure  made  vacant  by  the 
death  of  the  patriarchal  Mansfield;  and  for  some  time 
before  he  resigned  it  and  removed  to  New  Haven,  he 
showed  his  unselfish  heart  by  surrendering  his  salary, 
Providence  having  given  into  his  possession  the  means 
of  support  without  calling  upon  his  people.  But  this 
was  a  step  which  he  afterwards  regarded  as  wholly 
unwise.  The  laborer  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  is 
worthy  of  his  hire,  and  it  is  no  excuse  for  the  people 
to  withhold  it  from  him,  on  the  ground  that  he  is  not 
actually  in  a  state  of  penury.  There  never  was  a 
clergyman  who  had  so  large  an  income  that  he  could 
not  find  ways  to  dispense  it  all  in  charity.     In  conse- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  425 

quence  of  bodily  infirmities,  Mr.  Jewett  was  compelled 
to  withdraw  from  the  active  duties  of  the  ministry 
many  years  before  his  death,  but  he  left  behind 
him  the  memory  of  faithful  services  to  the  Church, 
and  of  generous  benefactions  wisely  bestowed  in  his 
lifetime  to  promote  objects  of  learning  and  religion. 

Dr.  Todd  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Todd,  of  Hun- 
tington, and  like  Mr.  Jewett,  acquired  his  classical  and 
theological  education  at  the  Episcopal  Academy  in 
Cheshire.  He  was  ordained  to  the  Diaconate  by 
Bishop  Hobart,  in  the  spring  of  1818,  and  the  whole 
period  of  his  ministry,  with  the  exception  of  the  first 
five  years,  was  spent  in  the  service  of  St.  John's 
Church,  Stamford.  From  1823  to  the  day  of  his 
death  in  1861,  he  fulfilled  the  office  of  a  priest  of 
God  among  the  same  people,  and  was  "permitted  to 
see  five  parishes  with  seven  churches  and  chapels  grow 
up  out  of  a  single  cure." 

The  Diocese  must  ever  bear  in  grateful  remem- 
brance the  name  of  Dr.  Wheaton.1  After  graduating 
from  Yale  College  in  1814,  he  proceeded  to  Maryland 
with  the  design  of  occupying  himself  as  a  teacher,  and 
while  there,  pursued  the  study  of  theology,  and  was 
admitted  first  to  the  Diaconate,  and  then  to  the  Priest- 
hood by  Bishop  Kemp.  He  returned  to  his  native 
State  in  1819,  having  been  appointed  to  fill  the 
vacancy  in  the  rectorship  of  Christ  Church,  Hartford. 

It  has  been  seen  in  other  chapters  of  this  work,  how 
his  skill  and  taste  in  ecclesiastical  architecture  were 
applied  to  the  erection  of  the  stately  edifice  belong- 
ing to  that  parish,  as  well  as  what  fidelity  and  power 

1  He  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  his  Alma  Mater  in 
1833. 


426  HISTORY   OF  THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

he  evinced  as  a  Christian  minister,  and  the  head  of  a 
collegiate  institution,  which  he  befriended  from  its 
very  foundation.  He  never  ceased  to  love  the  people 
to  whom  he  had  given  the  vigor  of  his  best  days. 
After  resigning  his  church  in  New  Orleans,  in  1844, 
and  spending  a  year  in  Europe,  he  returned  to  Con- 
necticut with  broken  health,  and  resided  for  a  time  at 
Hartford  among  the  cherished  friends  of  earlier  years, 
officiating  for  his  former  parish  during  a  vacancy  in 
the  rectorship,  and  rendering  as  they  were  needed 
services  in  other  places.  But  disease  increased  upon 
him,  and  being  a  bachelor  with  ample  means,  he 
retired  to  Marbledale,  his  native  village,  and  the 
humble  home  of  his  boyhood  was  as  great  an  enjoy- 
ment to  him  in  the  decline  of  life,  as  had  been  the 
dwelling  of  his  wealthiest  parishioner.  He  was  a 
benefactor  to  the  parish  in  Marbledale  —  for  besides 
assisting  in  the  enlargement  and  remodelling  of  its 
house  of  worship,  and  supplying  it  with  services  on 
alternate  Sundays  when  his  health  permitted,  he  en- 
dowed it  with  a  parsonage  and  suitable  grounds. 

He  died  in  March,  1862,  showing  to  the  last  his 
interest  in  Trinity  College,  by  leaving  to  its  Trustees 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  to  be  applied  in  the 
erection  of  a  chapel,  and  a  residuary  legacy,  for  the 
general  fund  of  the  institution,  amounting  to  as  much 
more.  The  pamphlets,  which  came  from  his  pen,  and 
the  writings  and  occasional  discourses  that  he  pub- 
lished, are  among  the  best  and  purest  productions  of 
the  Connecticut  clergy.  "For  myself,"  said  Bishop 
Williams,  mentioning  his  death  to  the  Convention,  "I 
desire  always  to  remember  him  as  I  first  knew  him, 
when  he  occupied  the  Presidency  of  the  College,  as 


IN  CONNECTICUT. 


427 


the  clear  and  able  expounder  of  the  Word  of  God, 
the  patient  and  accurate  instructor,  the  well-balanced 
Christian  man,  carrying  under  a  reserved  and  some- 
times cold  exterior,  an  unselfish,  warm,  and  generous 
heart." 


428  HISTORY  OF  THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

MORE  NEW  CHUECHES  AND  PARISHES  ;  PROVISION  FOR  THE 
CLERGY  ;  DONATIONS  AND  BEQUESTS  FOR  CHURCH  PURPOSES  • 
PROLONGED  RECTORSHIPS  ;  AND  DEATH  OF  BISHOP  BROW- 
NELL. 

A.  D.  1862-1865. 

Early  in  December,  1862,  Bishop  Williams  conse- 
crated Trinity  Church,  Southport,  a  spacious  edifice 
reconstructed  of  wood,  after  having  been  completely 
ruined  on  New  Year's  night  by  a  frightful  tornado. 
The  parish  had  just  finished  the  payment  of  a  debt, 
incurred  in  the  erection  of  a  church,  which  was  a  suc- 
cessor to  the  one  destroyed  by  fire,  when  this  unex- 
pected calamity  arose,  and  produced  scarcely  less 
devastation.  Had  the  edifice  been  originally  built  of 
stone,  and  without  a  tall  wooden  spire,  it  would  have 
been  proof  against  the  fury  of  the  gale,  that  carried 
sorrow  to  the  hearts  of  a  band  of  zealous  churchmen. 
It  was  located  in  the  borough,  where  the  shore  of  the 
sea  trends  to  the  southwest,  and  about  a  mile  distant 
from  the  old  Fairfield  Church,  which  filled  up  for  Dr. 
Dwight  the  vision  of  the  "  finished  landscape,"  when 
he  penned  the  lines  in  his  "  Greenfield  Hill " 1  — 

"  Beside  yon  Church  that  beams  a  modest  ray 
With  tidy  neatness  reputably  gay." 

If  suitable  stone  can  be  dug  out  of  the  hills  and 
quarries  in  the  vicinity,  or  conveniently  obtained  else- 

1  A  Poem  in  seven  parts  with  notes,  1794,  p.  41. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  429 

where,  it  is  the  best  material  for  use  in  the  construc- 
tion of  churches ;  and  the  practice  is  becoming  more 
common  for  parishes  in  the  rural  districts  of  Connecti- 
cut, to  adopt  it  on  the  score  of  economy  in  the  end. 

Notwithstanding  the  pressure  of  the  times,  several 
enterprises  were  projected  at  this  period,  which  put 
to  the  test  the  faith  of  clergymen  and  the  benevolence 
and  zeal  of  their  people.  The  corner-stone  of  a  new 
church  for  St.  Matthew's  parish,  Wilton,  was  laid  a 
week  after  the  Annual  Convention  of  1862,  and 
towards  the  end  of  August  in  the  same  year,  a  like 
ceremony  was  performed  for  Trinity  Church,  Bristol. 
The  edifice  at  Wilton,  in  the  cruciform  style,  was  built 
of  stone,  with  brick  quoins  and  arches ;  the  other  was 
constructed  of  wood.  St.  John's  Church,  Pine  Meadow, 
was  burnt  in  1860,  while  the  people  were  preparing 
it  for  the  celebration  of  the  Christmas  festival,  and 
another  of  wood  to  supply  its  place  was  consecrated  in 
June,  1863. 

An  effort  was  begun  in  1864,  to  provide  a  new  stone 
church  of  attractive  architecture  for  the  ancient  parish 
at  Brooklyn.  The  venerable  sanctuary  built  before 
the  Revolution,  chiefly  at  the  expense  of  Godfrey  Mal- 
bone,  though  beautiful  for  situation,  and  dear  to  the 
hearts  of  many  from  the  associations  of  a  lifetime, 
and  the  memories  of  the  dead  who  sleep  around  it, 
was  too  far  from  the  village,  and  every  way  unsuited 
to  the  wants  and  growth  of  the  congregation.  The 
work  of  building  on  a  choice  site  in  the  centre  of  the 
population,  progressed  slowly,  but  with  the  aid  of  con- 
tributions from  other  parishes  it  was  finally  completed, 
and  the  toil  of  the  faithful  rector,  who  for  nearly 
thirty  years  had   stood  at  this  lone  outpost  of  the 


430  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

Diocese,  was  rewarded.  The  old  church  remains  as  a 
relic  of  former  times,  "  overshadowed  by  huge  oaks  in 
the  quiet  churchyard,"  one  of  the  very  few  buildings 
in  New  England  which  show  the  ancient  style  of 
ecclesiastical  architecture.  It  is  to  be  preserved  from 
decay,  and  kept  in  repair  for  occasional  use,  by  the 
interest  of  a  legacy  left  for  that  purpose. 

But  important  steps  were  now  taken  in  the  direc- 
tion of  new  parochial  organizations.  As  the  result  of 
the  labors  of  some  of  the  students  of  the  Berkeley 
Divinity  School,  working  under  the  supervision  of 
Bishop  Williams,  parishes  were  formed,  and  churches 
of  wood  built  in  Durham  and  Middlefield,  towns 
adjoining  the  city  of  Middletown.  On  Good  Friday, 
1863,  a  parish  was  organized  at  Hazardville,  in  the 
town  of  Enfield,  and  a  brick  church  erected  mainly 
through  the  liberality  of  a  wealthy  gentleman  1  whose 
name  the  village  bears.  About  two  years  earlier, 
Trinity  Church,  Hartford,  was  consecrated.  This  was 
a  handsome  edifice  of  Portland  stone,  originally  built 
for  a  Unitarian  Society,  and  located  in  a  central  and 
busy  street.  That  Society  was  unsuccessful,  and 
finally  disposed  of  its  property  for  secular  uses,  and 
it  was  a  fitting  thing  in  the  new  parish  of  Trinity 
Church  to  purchase  the  building,  take  it  down,  and 
reerect  it  in  another  and  rapidly  growing  part  of  the 
city.  The  last  public  act  of  Bishop  Brownell  was  to 
lay  its  corner-stone,  and  at  the  time  of  its  consecra- 
tion to  the  worship  of  the  Triune  God,  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Huntington,  of  Boston,  formerly  a  distinguished  Uni- 
tarian minister,  and  now  a  presbyter  in  the  Episcopal 

i  A.  G.  Hazard.  He  died  in  1868,  remembering  among  his  bequests  the 
parish  which  he  had  founded. 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  431 

Church,  was  present  to  preach  the  sermon,  —  "an 
exceedingly  well-written  and  impressively  delivered 
discourse  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity." 

A  stone  church,  finished  with  great  taste,  was  conse- 
crated on  the  30th  of  June,  1863,  for  the  new  parish 
of  the  Holy  Trinity  in  Westport.  It  was  due  to  the 
design  of  a  single  individual  who  died  before  the  walls 
were  raised,  but  his  widow,1  without  regard  to  cost, 
more  than  completed  the  plans,  and  then  dedicated 
the  beautiful  structure  as  a  memorial  to  her  late 
husband,  and  executed  a  deed  conveying  it  to  the 
"  Trustees  of  Donations  and  Bequests  for  Church  pur- 
poses," to  hold  the  same  in  perpetuity  for  the  benefit 
of  the  parish  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  It  was  the  first 
memorial  church  erected  in  Connecticut,  and  the 
whole  cost  of  it,  with  the  land  and  appendages,  was 
about  fifty-five  thousand  dollars. 

A  movement,  stimulated  by  a  peculiar  state  of  feel- 
ing among  the  supporters  of  St.  John's  Church,  led  to 
the  formation  of  a  third  parish  within  the  compact 
limits  of  the  city  of  Bridgeport.  The  swarm  does  not 
always  leave  with  the  utmost  good  will  of  the  old 
hive.  Unpleasant  things  often  occur  in  the  establish- 
ment of  new  parochial  organizations,  and  jealousies 
and  contentions,  from  which  Christian  men  are  not 
free,  sometimes  spring  up  and  produce  estrangements 
that  last  for  a  generation,  and  conflict  with  the  best 
interests  of  the  Church.  The  movement  in  Bridge- 
port was  attended  with  a  little  trouble  in  its  earlier 
stages.  Sixty-three  heads  of  families,  most  of  whom 
had  been  connected  with  St.  John's  parish,  went 
through  the  legal  and  canonical  form  of  organizing 

1  Mrs.  Mary  Fitch  Winslow. 


432  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

themselves  into  a  society  by  the  name  of  Trinity 
Church,  and  then,  1863,  applied  for  admission  into 
union  with  the  Convention  of  the  Diocese.  The  com- 
mittee, to  whom  the  documents  were  referred,  reported 
unanimously  in  favor  of  the  application  ;  but  when 
it  came  up  for  consideration,  it  was  warmly  opposed, 
on  the  ground  that  no  such  parish  should  be  received 
especially  if  it  was  permitted  to  build  its  church  on  a 
site  which  had  been  selected  almost  under  the  very 
droppings  of  the  old  sanctuary.  The  Convention  re- 
fused to  be  guided  by  any  partial  view  of  the  case, 
and  admitted  the  parish  to  the  usual  privileges  upon 
the  broad  principle  that  the  necessary  legal  and  ca- 
nonical steps  having  been  taken,  and  the  sanction  of 
the  ecclesiastical  authority  obtained,  the  right  of 
admission  could  not  be  denied.  The  responsibility  of 
choosing  a  lot  on  which  to  build,  so  near  the  mother 
church  as  to  be  in  the  judgment  of  many  a  perpetual 
reminder  of  strife  and  division,  was  for  those  to  bear 
who  were  immediately  concerned  in  the  enterprise. 

Measures  were  at  once  adopted  to  erect  a  stone 
church  in  early  English  style,  without  spire  or  tower, 
and  affording  sittings  for  six  hundred  persons.  The 
expense  of  its  erection,  furniture,  and  lot  —  about 
twenty  thousand  dollars  —  was  promptly  provided 
for,  and  the  edifice  consecrated  on  the  2d  of  Novem- 
ber, 1864.  The  parish  entered  upon  a  life  of  zealous 
activity,  —  which  served  to  attest  the  claim  of  its 
founders,  that  "  it  was  formed  to  do  the  work  of  our 
Master  and  only  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  advance 
His  Kingdom,  a  kingdom  of  truth,  righteousness, 
mercy,  candor,  and  honor." 

The  two  older  parishes  in  the  same  city  relieved 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  433 

themselves  of  the  inconvenient  debts  which  they  had 
carried  for  many  years,  and  as  something  which 
belongs  to  that  period,  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the 
Mission  established  by  St.  John's,  in  East  Bridgeport, 
now  (1868)  promises,  under  a  resident  minister,  who 
devotes  his  whole  energies  to  its  welfare,  soon  to 
become  a  strong  and  vigorous  parish  with  a  substan- 
tial stone  edifice,  —  the  erection  of  which  has  already 
been  commenced. 

The  clouds  of  civil  war  hung  heavily  over  the 
country  when  most  of  these  enterprises  were  initi- 
ated. Money  was  easily  earned,  and  circulated  freely, 
and  judicious  schemes  for  the  advancement  of  the 
parish,  or  the  institutions  of  the  Church  at  large,  were 
sure  to  meet  with  favorable  attention.  Some  chari- 
ties, however,  conceived  before  the  war,  now  took 
shape.  Two  homes  for  aged  and  destitute  women,  one 
under  the  auspices  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven, 
and  the  other  under  the  direction  of  the  Church  of 
the  Holy  Trinity  (formerly  Christ  Church),  Middle- 
town,  arose  at  this  season,  and  were  the  beginning  of 
a  new  form  of  parish  work  in  the  Diocese.  Wealthy 
laymen  whose  "liberal  things,"  were  suspended  by 
the  outbreak  of  national  troubles,  returned  to  them, 
and  what  was  not  given  or  laid  out  immediately,  has 
since  been  bestowed  with  generous  and  unostentatious 
benevolence.1 

1  Mr.  Joseph  E.  Sheffield,  of  New  Haven,  has  recently  commenced  on 
the  same  grounds  in  that  city  suitable  buildings,  including  a  chapel,  which 
will  cost  when  completed,  about  seventy  thousand  dollars,  intending  the 
whole  as  a  free  gift  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  "  Parish  School  of  Trinity 
Church,"  and  "  The  Trinity  Church  Home."  This,  with  his  previous  dona- 
tions to  the  cause  of  education,  and  to  the  Church  in  the  Diocese,  will 
perpetuate  his  name  as  a  liberal  benefactor. 
VOL.  II.  28 


434  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

All  commodities  are  enhanced  in  price  as  money 
cheapens,  and  clergymen  with  salaries  barely  sufficient 
to  support  their  households  at  former  rates  had  before 
them  a  gloomy  and  disheartening  prospect,  as  the 
year  1863  was  drawing  to  its  close.  The  two  bishops, 
therefore,  shortly  before  Christmas,  addressed  a  pas- 
toral letter  to  the  vestries,  and  to  the  members  of  the 
parishes  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Connecticut,  call- 
ing their  attention  to  the  condition  of  many  of  the 
clergy,  and  asking  them  to  make  further  provision  for 
their  wants  in  a  "  period  of  the  advanced  and  advan- 
cing prices  of  all  the  necessaries  of  life."  Unless  relief 
in  some  shape  was  afforded,  it  was  evident  that  there 
were  parishes  then  faithfully  served  by  their  ministers, 
which  must  either  be  abandoned,  or  else  "  indebted- 
ness, suffering,  and  untold  trials  "  would  ensue.  The 
circular  of  the  Bishops  reached  the  laity  in  a  season 
of  thankful  joy  for  the  mercies  of  redemption,  and 
met  with  such  a  general  and  cordial  response  that 
Bishop  Williams,  in  his  address  to  the  Convention 
the  next  year,  referred  to  it  with  gratitude,  and 
said  :  — 

"  The  cases,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain, 
where,  with  the  ability  to  do,  nothing  was  done,  were 
altogether  exceptional,  and  exceedingly  few.  The 
subject  is  one  which  we  trust  will  not  be  lost  sight  of. 
It  involves  not  more  a  Christian  duty  than  it  does  the 
well-being  of  our  parishes  and  our  Diocese.  A  pro- 
vision, which  was  sufficient  a  few  years  since,  is  very 
far  from  being  so  to-day.  I  rejoice,  however,  in  the 
belief,  that  this  whole  subject  of  clerical  support  may 
be  safely  left  to  the  generosity  and  justice  of  the 
laity." 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  435 

Hitherto  there  had  been  no  incorporation  in  the 
Diocese  to  receive  and  manage  such  donations  and 
bequests  as  devoted  friends  of  the  Church  might 
design  for  its  benefit.  Charities  are  sometimes  per- 
verted or  misused  when  those  who  bestowed  them 
are  out  of  the  way,  and  this  operates  as  a  discourage- 
ment to  benevolence.  For  Christians  with  liberal  dis- 
positions may  well  hesitate  to  provide  endowments 
for  specific  church  purposes,  where  there  is  no  security 
from  the  influence  of  individual  or  parochial  selfish- 
ness. The  subject  was  brought  before  the  Diocesan 
Convention  in  1863,  and  the  preliminary  steps  taken 
to  apply  to  the  General  Assembly  for  an  act  incor- 
porating a  Board  of  "  Trustees  of  Donations  and 
Bequests  for  Church  Purposes."  The  charter  granted, 
enabled  them  to  receive,  hold,  and  manage  all  funds 
entrusted  to  them  "  for  the  support  of  the  institutions, 
parishes,  and  missionary  work  of  the  Protestant  Epis- 
copal Church  in  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  and  for 
the  promotion  of  any  of  its  general  interests  accord- 
ing to  the  doctrines,  discipline,  rites,  and  usages  of 
said  Church."  The  net  income  of  productive  property 
was  to  be  disbursed  by  them  upon  the  conditions  of 
the  respective  trusts  as  stated  in  the  original  gifts, 
bequests,  or  transfers.  Thus  benevolent  churchmen, 
who  apprehend  the  alienation  of  charities,  may  have 
through  the  incorporation  of  this  Board  a  feeling 
of  security  that  the  donations  which  they  would  make 
for  a  specific  purpose,  will  be  sacredly  applied  accord- 
ing to  their  intention  and  desire. 

The  prosperity  of  the  Diocese  was  visible  in  spirit- 
ual as  well  as  temporal  things.  It  is  true  of  some 
men  that  they  are  often  liberal  in  contributing  to  the 


436  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

erection  of  churches,1  while  they  appear  to  forget  the 
real  object  of  public  worship,  and  the  claims  of  God 
upon  us  to  "walk  before  Him  in  holiness  and  right- 
eousness all  our  days."  But  of  the  nine  hundred  and 
twenty-two  persons  confirmed  during  the  preceding 
year,  Bishop  Williams  said  in  his  address  to  the  Con- 
vention of  1864  :  "  A  very  gratifying  feature  of  the 
confirmations  has  been  the  large  number  of  males 
who  have  come  forward  to  receive  that  Apostolic  rite. 
In  several  instances,  they  have  composed  the  entire 
class  ;  and  in  most  cases,  their  numbers  have  increased 
from  those  of  previous  years." 

The  preface  to  the  order  of  Confirmation  provides 
that  those  who  are  to  receive  it  shall  have  been  duly 
instructed  in  the  principles  of  the  Christian  religion 
as  taught  by  the  Church,  and  the  custom  is  not  com- 
mon in  Connecticut  to  present  any  for  the  rite  whose 
age  disqualifies  them  for  a  proper  understanding  of 
its  nature  and  solemnity.  Most  rectors  now  prepare 
their  candidates  with  special  reference  to  the  Holy 
Communion,  and  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  a  great 
change  in  this  respect  has  taken  place  during  the 
lapse  of  half  a  century.  In  the  same  address  above 
alluded  to,  Bishop  Williams,  glancing  back  over  a 
period  of  ten  years,  mentioned  that  seven  thousand 
six  hundred  and  sixty-eight  persons  had  been  con- 
firmed in  that  time,  and  seven  thousand  two  hundred 
and  fifty-two  persons  admitted  as  new  communicants. 
The  figures  for  the  last  four  of  these  years,  as  well  as 

1  "  Though  stone  and  brick  and  wood,  are  not  salvation,  they  may- 
become  subsidiary  to  it  in  various  ways.  They  not  only  furnish  the  oppor- 
tunity to  recommend  and  urge  it,  but  by  a  suitable  employment  and  dis- 
position, they  do  themselves  instruct  and  educate  and  refine."  —  Rev.  Dr. 
Hallam's  Anniversary  Sermon,  1860,  p.  11. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  437 

for  the  year  then  closing,  showed  a  more  favorable 
comparison.  "And  this,  my  brethren,"  the  Bishop 
went  on  to  say,  "  it  seems  to  me,  is  as  it  should  be. 
For  while  it  cannot  be  laid  down,  as  an  unalterable 
rule,  that  no  one  shall  be  received  to  confirmation, 
unless  on  the  condition  of  immediately  coining  to  the 
Lord's  Table,  yet,  surely,  all  who  are  presented  for 
that  holy  rite  should  be  affectionately  admonished 
that  they  ought  to  come,  with  the  honest  purpose  of 
'  going  on  '  from  '  baptism,  and  the  laying  on  of  hands,' 
to  those  i  holy  mysteries,'  by  which  we  are  '  assured 
of  God's  favor  and  goodness  towards  us,  and  that  we 
are  very  members  incorporate  in  the  mystical  body 
of  His  Son.' " 

Hence,  though  not  a  season  of  tranquillity  in  na- 
tional affairs,  it  was  a  season  of  growth  for  the  Church 
in  Connecticut,  and  good  impressions,  through  the 
sanctifying  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  were  produced 
upon  the  souls  and  characters,  the  life  and  conversa- 
tion, of  her  members.  The  list  of  the  clergy,  number- 
ing upwards  of  one  hundred  and  forty,  was  chiefly 
composed  of  those  in  youth  and  middle  age,  and  there 
were  no  rectorships  in  the  Diocese  at  that  time  which 
began  at  so  early  a  date  as  the  consecration  of  Bishop 
Brownell.  Death,  and  the  changes  incident  to  the 
fluctuations  of  human  society,  had  often  sundered  the 
pastoral  ties,  so  that  seven  only  among  the  clergy 
could  be  found  who  had  been  connected  with  their 
parishes  for  a  period  of  twenty- five  years.1 

1  The  Rev.  Dr.  Bennett,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Guilford,  in  his 
twenty-fifth  anniversary  sermon,  preached  July,  1865,  says,  p.  13  :  — 

"  At  the  present  day.  when  the  pastoral  tie  is  so  frail  and  so  frequently 
severed,  the  rectorship  of  a  quarter  of  a  century's  continuance  is  eminently 
noticeable.  Of  above  one  hundred  and  forty  clergymen  in  this  Diocese, 
only  five  besides  your  Rector  have  remained  for  that  period  in  the  same 


438  HISTORY   OF   THE  EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Prolonged  rectorships  generally  leave  behind  them 
lasting  fruits  and  blessed  memories.  They  serve  to 
increase  the  sacredness  attached  to  the  pastoral  office. 
Members  of  a  parish  who  were  born  and  educated 
under  the  ministrations  of  the  same  clergyman  come 
to  regard  him  as  their  spiritual  father,  and  to  confide 
in  his  instructions  even  when  they  cease  to  be  attrac- 
tive to  other  minds.  But  it  is  a  privilege  which  very 
few  are  permitted  to  enjoy,  to  consecrate  faithful  labor 
through  youth  and  through  age,  to  the  spiritual 
benefit  of  one  people.  John  Beach,  of  Newtown,  was 
the  only  Episcopal  clergyman  in  Connecticut  before 
the  Independence  of  the  Colonies  was  acknowledged, 
whose  ministrations  in  the  same  cure  were  continued 
without  interruption  for  half  a  century.  Since  the 
Revolution  to  this  day,  only  three  rectors  in  the  Dio- 
cese —  Dibblee,  of  Stamford,  Mansfield,  of  Derby,  and 
Tyler,  of  Norwich  —  have  had  a  like  experience,  and 
these  all,  with  Beach,  were  missionaries  of  the  vener- 
able Society,  and  went  beyond  the  limit  of  his  ministry 
in  the  Episcopal  Church.  Hubbard,  of  New  Haven, 
nearly  reached  it ;  and  Croswell  his  successor,  Fogg, 
of  Brooklyn,  and  Shelton,  of  Bridgeport,  were  each 
forty  years  or  more  in  unbroken  charge  of  the  same 
parish. 

What  is  true  of  a  protracted  rectorship,  is  much 
more  true  of  a  protracted  Episcopate.    Though  Bishop 

field  of  labor  :  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hallam,  of  St.  James's  Church,  New  London; 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Mead,  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Norwalk  ;  the  Rev.  Dr.  Clark, 
of  St.  John's  Church,  Waterbury  ;  the  Rev.  Dr.  Emery,  of  Trinity  Church, 
Portland  ;  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  Camp,  of  Trinity  Church,  Brooklyn." 

To  this  list  should  have  been  added  the  name  of  the  Rev.  B.  M.  Yarring- 
ton,  Rector  of  Christ  Church,  Greenwich.  His  charge  of  that  parish  com- 
menced in  April,  1839. 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  439 

Brownell  had  long  been  languishing  under  the  infirmi- 
ties of  age,  and  unable  to  discharge  the  full  duties  of 
his  office,  yet  he  still  lived  fresh  in  the  affections  of 
his  clergy,  and  of  all  who  knew  him,  and  was  revered 
and  esteemed  for  his  good  example,  his  simple  virtues, 
and  unostentatious  piety,  not  less  than  for  his  official 
character,  his  uniform  prudence,  and  accurate  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature.  The  lustre  which  Christian 
learning  throws  over  talents  and  over  station,  beauti- 
fied the  evening  of  his  days,  and  the  dignity  and  grace 
of  his  manners,  which  had  always  commanded  respect 
and  excited  affection  in  the  circles  of  rank  and  afflu- 
ence, lingered  to  the  last.  Among  the  lowly  and  the 
poor  also  he  was  deeply  beloved  for  his  generous  kind- 
ness and  ready  sympathy. 

But  the  worn  thread  is  easily  broken.  Just  before 
Christmas  he  became  seriously  ill  and  died,  after  much 
physical  suffering,  on  the  morning  of  the  13  th  of  Jan- 
uary, 1865,  surrounded  by  his  family,  and  his  assist- 
ant and  successor,  for  whom  as  for  others  "  he  spoke 
words  of  farewell  and  of  blessing  never  to  be  forgot- 
ten."  Not  only  was  the  Diocese,  by  this  event,  be- 
reaved of  its  venerable  head,  but  the  Church  through- 
out  our  land  was  deprived  of  its  senior  and  presiding 
Bishop.  It  was  a  bitter  cold  day,  on  the  17th  of  the 
month,  when  he  was  carried  forth  to  his  burial.  Thou- 
sands of  persons  thronged  Christ  Church  to  see  the 
remains,  which,  clothed  in  the  episcopal  habit,  had 
been  "  placed  on  a  catafalque  in  front  of  the  chancel." 

When  the  hour  appointed  for  the  public  service 
arrived,  the  Bishop  of  New  York,  and  all  the  bishops 
of  the  New  England  Dioceses,  except  the  Bishop  of 
New  Hampshire,  together  with  the  clergy  of  Connec- 


440  HISTORY   OF   THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

ticut  and  representatives  from  its  parishes,  and  clergy- 
men from  other  States  were  present,  and  participated 
in  the  solemn  and  imposing  ceremonies.  Dr.  Burgess, 
the  Bishop  of  Maine,  delivered  the  address  —  a  fin- 
ished and  graceful  portraiture  of  the  deceased  prelate. 
No  one  could  speak  with  a  better  understanding  of 
his  private  and  official  character,  for  he  had  learned 
to  love  and  esteem  him  when  he  was  fulfilling  under 
his  immediate  supervision  the  duties  of  a  rector  in 
Hartford. 

At  the  close  of  the  services  in  the  church  a  proces- 
sion was  formed,  and  moved  towards  the  cemetery  on 
the  northern  edge  of  the  city.  The  body  was  borne 
upon  a  bier,  and  all  who  followed  it,  except  the  imme- 
diate family  and  friends,  were  on  foot,  the  bishops 
in  their  official  robes,  and  the  clergy  in  their  black 
gowns.  "  As  the  long  procession  passed  on  to  the 
cemetery,  the  snow  fell  thickly  on  the  pall,  changing 
its  blackness  to  the  purest  white."  Thus  were  buried 
the  mortal  remains  of  the  third  Bishop  of  Connecticut. 

He  was  the  fifteenth  in  the  line  of  succession  con- 
secrated in  these  United  States,  and  of  all  our  prelates, 
with  the  exception  of  the  patriarchal  and  saintly 
White,  whose  episcopate  reached  into  the  fiftieth 
year,  he  held  the  staff  of  his  office  the  longest,  and 
there  was  not  a  bishop  in  the  Church  of  England  at 
the  time  of  his  decease,  whose  consecration,  like  his, 
dated  back  to  1819.  "The  image  of  a  pure  and  a 
long  episcopate,  left  on  the  most  sacred  recollections 
in  so  many  parish  churches,  in  so  many  Christian 
families,  in  so  many  chambers  of  prayer,  and  in  so 
many  secret  hearts,  is  something  which  an  angel 
might  almost  emulate.     What  care  or  toil,  what  sacri- 


IN  CONNECTICUT.  441 

fice  or  burden,  would  it  not  recompense?"  But  how 
great  are  the  changes  produced  by  death  in  the  silent 
lapse  of  forty-five  years.  Three  only  of  the  clergy 
who  welcomed  him  to  the  Diocese  survived,  and  of 
the  more  than  fifteen  thousand  persons  upon  whom 
he  had  laid  his  hands  in  the  apostolic  rite  of  con- 
firmation, a  vast  number  had  preceded  him  to  the 
world  of  spirits,  as  had  also  full  one  third  of  those  to 
whom  he  had  given  authority  to  execute  the  office  of 
deacons  and  priests  in  the  Church  of  God. 

If  it  is  the  sad  feeling  of  such  a  lengthened  age  to 
find  itself  alone  among  new  generations,  it  is  yet  a 
privilege  that  it  has  witnessed  the  progress  of  human 
events,  and  the  advance  of  the  Church  from  weakness 
to  strength  and  great  prosperity.  At  the  time  when 
Bishop  Brownell  was  invested  with  the  oversight  of 
the  Diocese,  there  were  but  seven  parishes  in  it  capable 
of  supporting  full  services ;  the  rest  were  united  in 
cures,  and  imperfectly  sustained.  Forty  clergymen, 
scattered  along  the  shore  towns,  and  back  in  the 
interior  of  the  State,  led  their  thin  flocks,  and  minis- 
tered to  them  in  the  rude  wooden  edifices,  erected  for* 
the  most  part  before  the  storms  of  the  Revolution. 

But  what  a  change  in  these  respects  did  he  live  to 
witness,  the  whole  of  which  was  accomplished  under 
the  blessing  of  his  own  Episcopate !  Like  a  vine  run- 
ning over  and  mantling  the  wall,  the  Church  had 
covered  the  land  where  she  was  once  so  weak  and  de- 
pendent, once  most  bitterly  and  persistently  opposed. 
The  pages  of  this  work  have  traced  the  successive 
steps  of  her  growth,  and  the  events  which  contributed 
to  the  establishment  of  her  principles.  From  the 
summary  of  parochial  reports  in  the  Journal  of  the 


442  HISTORY   OF  THE   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH 

Convention  for  1865,  it  appears  that  the  parishes  of 
the  Diocese  then  numbered  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
nine,  the  clergy  one  hundred  and  fifty,  and  the  commu- 
nicants twelve  thousand  five  hundred.  The  amount  of 
missionary  and  charitable  contributions,  for  the  same 
year,  not  including  ordinary  expenses  and  canonical 
assessments,  was  upwards  of  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars. 

It  would  be  wrong  to  say  that  this  growth,  in  the 
order  of  Divine  Providence,  was  due  to  Bishop  Brow- 
nell.  It  was  what  he  lived  to  see,  and  it  was  attained 
under  his  wise  and  paternal  administration.  Zealous 
laymen  who  confided  in  the  wisdom  of  their  spiritual 
overseers,  a  body  of  faithful  and  earnest  clergy,  and 
an  energetic,  self-sacrificing,  and  scholarly  Assistant 
Bishop  were  the  largest  contributors,  humanly  speak- 
ing, to  the  later  and  more  abundant  prosperity  of  the 
Diocese.  The  senior  prelate  exercised  a  silent  influ- 
ence, and  did  his  work  without  knowing  that  the  work 
had  been  done. 

"He  was  endued  with  those  natural  attributes, 
'physical  and  mental,  which  form  the  completeness  of 
manhood,  and  come  only  from  Him  who  made  us,  not 
from  ourselves.  The  endurance  and  vitality  of  his 
frame  he  shared  with  a  very  numerous  family  of 
brothers  and  sisters,  not  one  of  whom  died  till  an 
advanced  period  of  maturity.  In  him  it  resisted, 
through  fourscore  and  five  years,  the  encroachments 
of  decay,  bending,  at  all  times,  rather  than  breaking, 
under  every  assault  of  disease.  A  manly  stature,  an 
attractive  person,  a  noble  aspect  and  voice,  were  easily 
united  with  a  dignified  bearing,  a  kindly  manner,  and 
a  graceful  elocution.     The  mind,  corresponding  with 


IN   CONNECTICUT.  443 

the  outward  frame,  uttered  itself  in  calm  and  lucid 
thought,  in  harmonious  sentences,  and  in  perspicuous 
arguments.  These  qualities  were  clue  to  the  direct 
gift  of  the  Creator,  in  his  very  nature,  or  to  the  bless- 
ing which  attended  such  a  nature  under  the  usual 
process  of  educational  culture.         .... 

"  His  equability,  his  sagacity,  the  impartiality  of  his 
determinations,  the  largeness  of  his  views,  the  avoid- 
ance of  needless  collisions,  the  decision  of  his  conduct, 
when  decision  became  needful,  had  their  result  in 
this  strong  and  united  and  confiding  Diocese.  He 
sought  no  constrained  uniformity.  He  entertained  no 
fanciful  ideal.  He  leaned  towards  no  extreme  ten- 
dency. He  was  steadfast,  because  his  mind  was  clear. 
He  brushed  away  all  that  was  not  essential  to  any 
question  or  purpose,  or  smiled,  and  suffered  it  to  pass 
by.  He  recognized  the  rights  of  all.  No  one  had 
cause  to  suppose  himself  wronged  with  him  by  any 
prejudice  •  and  when  '  swift  to  hear,  slow  to  speak, 
and  very  slow  to  wrath,'  he  spoke  at  length,  the 
Church  listened  and  was  satisfied." * 

This  extract  gives  a  just  though  brief  outline  of  his 
"  qualities "  and  character.  What  it  lacks  may  be 
well  supplied  by  applying  to  him  in  his  connection 
with  the  Church  and  its  institutions  in  the  Diocese 
of  Connecticut,  that  passage  of  the  Psalmist,  which 
Bishop  Williams,  in  his  commemorative  sermon, 2  said 
he  never  could  read  without  the  involuntary  applica- 
tion :  "  So  he  fed  them  with  a  faithful  and  true  heart, 
and  ruled  them  prudently  with  all  his  power." 

1  Address  of  Bishop  Burgess,  pp.  8,  9.  2  Page  14. 


APPENDIX. 


APPENDIX  A. 

The  following  letter  was  addressed  to  the  Rev.  Ashbel  Baldwin, 
Stratford,  Ct. :  — 

"  Ceoom,  12th  January,  1807. 

"  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir,  —  I  had  the  honor  to  receive  a  letter  from 
the  Reverend  Convocation  of  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  together 
with  a  resolve  of  that  body,  requesting  you  as  their  Secretary,  to 
forward  a  similar  one  to  all  the  bishops  who  sat  in  the  last  General 
Convention  of  our  Church.  This  letter  I  received  about  three 
months  ago,  and  for  reasons  which  will  appear  below,  I  have 
hitherto  declined  answering  it.  In  their  letter  the  Convocation 
inform  me  of  the  step  the  Convocation  of  the  Church  of  Connecti- 
cut had  in  the  year  1804  thought  themselves  authorized  to  take  in 
Mr.  Rogers's  unhappy  affair,  in  consequence  of  its  being  referred  to 
them  by  the  House  of  Bishops,  of  their  reasons  for  taking  that  step, 
and  the  consequent  misunderstanding  that  had  arisen  between 
them  and  two  of  the  House  of  Bishops  on  the  subject,  by  which  a 
great  danger  of  a  schism  in  the  flourishing  Church  of  Connecticut 
had  arisen.  They  go  on  to  profess  the  purity  of  their  intentions  in 
that  transaction,  and  in  the  true  spirit  of  the  Gospel,  their  hearty 
desire  to  do  everything  in  their  power  for  the  peace  and  prosperity 
of  the  Church,  and  conclude  their  letter  by  requesting  that  I,  in 
conjunction  with  the  other  bishops,  concerned  in  that  business, 
would  as  soon  as  convenient  transmit  a  statement  of  our  view  of 
the  whole  subject,  together  with  our  advice  to  Connecticut,  how  it 
would  be  prudent  in  the  present  state  of  things  to  proceed,  and 
particularly,  whether  it  would  be  advisable  to  give  Mr.  Rogers  a 
new  trial  on  the  ground  of  nullity  in  the  Act  of  Degradation. 

"  For  reasons  which  will  presently  appear,  however  desirous  I  may 
be,  it  is  impossible  that  I  should  at  present,  with  my  stock  of  infor- 
mation on  the  subject,  comply  with  this  request.  However,  I  think 
it  my  duty  to  state  to  you  the  view  I  myself  had  of  the  cause,  and 
the  part  I  took  in  it.  You  will  recollect,  my  dear  sir,  the  very  ill 
state  of  health  I  was  in  during  the  whole  session  of  that  Conven- 


448  APPENDIX. 

tion.  Notwithstanding  which,  as  I  conceived  Mr.  Rogers's  appeal 
to  be  amongst  the  most  important  affairs  which  the  House  of 
Bishops  had  to  transact,  I  attended  closely  to  it,  and  endeavored 
to  view  it  in  all  its  bearings.  On  the  last  day  of  the  session  of 
Convention,  just  before  its  adjournment,  the  deputies  from  the 
Church  of  Connecticut,  and  Mr:  Rogers,  were  desired  to  retire  out 
of  the  House  of  Bishops,  when,  according  to  the  best  of  my  recol- 
lection, every  bishop  present,  except  Bishop  Jarvis  (who  I  pre- 
sume, thought  himself  too  much  implicated  to  give  any  opinion), 
expressed  a  decided  conviction  of  his  guilt,  and  I  then  thought 
nothing  remained  to  be  done  but  to  award  the  sentence  denounced 
by  our  Canon  law  against  such  criminals.  But  in  this  particular 
I  was  mistaken  ;  for  I  was  invited  to  dine  in  the  evening  of  that 
day  in  which  Convention  adjourned,  together  with  the  rest  of  my 
Rt.  Rev.  Brethren,  with  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Moore,  and  told  that 
Mr.  Rogers's  business  would  be  then  and  there  finished.  In  the 
course  of  the  morning,  I  was  informed  by  some  clergyman  (I  have 
forgotten  whom),  that  it  was  the  wish  of  some  of  the  bishops  to 
have  the  cause  referred  back  to  some  of  the  State  Conventions. 
This  gave  me  some  uneasiness,  for  my  illness  having  increased,  I 
had  determined  to  return  by  the  first  opportunity,  and  before  the 
meeting  at  Dr.  Moore's.  Thus  circumstanced,  I  sent  for  my  Rt. 
Rev.  Brother  Dr.  Parker,  to  my  friend  Dr.  Beach's,  where  I  lodged, 
took  him  into  a  private  room,  and  informed  him  of  my  situation, 
and  of  my  intention  to  leave  town  immediately,  and  also  of  what  I 
had  heard  concerning  the  wish  of  some  of  the  bishops,  respecting 
Rogers's  cause.  I  told  him  that  I  was  pointedly  against  the  adop- 
tion of  such  a  measure  for  the  following  reasons.  Because,  as  I 
understood  the  matter,  Mr.  Rogers  did  not  hold  himself  amenable 
to  the  Church,  either  of  Connecticut  or  New  York,  and  had  on  that 
ground  appealed  from  the  prosecution  commenced  against  him  by 
the  Church  of  Connecticut,  to  our  House,  so  that  the  cause  appeared 
to  me  to  come  very  properly  before  us,  and  that  it  did  appear  to  me 
also  after  what  had  passed  in  our  House  in  it,  that  we  could  not 
possibly  refer  it  to  any  earthly  tribunal  whatever,  without  derogat- 
ing from  that  authority  given  by  the  great  Head  of  His  Church  to 
His  Apostles  collectively,  and  through  them  to  their  successors  in 
office  to  the  end  of  the  world,  when  He  delivered  to  St.  Peter  the 
keys  of  the  Church,  which  authority  I  conceive  was  by  his  appoint- 
ment  paramount  to  that  of  any  single  Bishop  or  Church  in  our 


APPENDIX.  449 

Union,  and  therefore,  in  cases  of  this  sort,  especially,  not  transfer- 
able by  them  to  any  earthly  tribunal.  I  added,  that  if  it  should 
appear  that  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Bishops  was  determined  to 
refer  this  cause  to  some  State  Convention,  I  hoped  they  would  not 
refer  it  to  the  Church  of  Connecticut,  as  I  was  persuaded  that  such 
a  measure  would  have  a  direct  tendency  to  make  the  confusion 
already  occasioned  by  it  in  that  flourishing  Church  still  more  con- 
fused, and  endanger  a  schism. 

"  In  these  sentiments  Bishop  Parker  appeared  at  the  time  to  coin- 
cide with  me,  and  I  concluded  the  conversation  by  requesting  him 
to  set  my  name  to  the  act,  if  the  bishops  should  determine  to  do 
the  only  thing  in  my  opinion  remaining  to  be  done,  namely,  to 
award  the  sentence  against  Mr.  Rogers,  required  by  our  Canon 
law  ;  but  if  a  reference  to  any  Convention,  or  any  other  half-way 
measure  was  adopted,  not  to  put  my  name  to  the  deed,  as  I  was 
exanimo  against  them  all.  The  good  Bishop  promised  to  conform 
to  the  premises,  and  I  have  not  had  any  information  since  on  the 
subject,  excepting  what  has  been  afforded  me  by  the  journals  of  the 
last  General  Convention,  and  the  letter  of  your  Convocation.  I 
did  think  it  possible,  that  in  consequence  of  the  resolution  of  your 
Convocation  lately  sent  me,  some  of  my  Right  Reverend  friends 
might  have  stated  to  me  by  letter  their  motives  for  referring  this 
cause,  as  also  their  intentions  with  respect  to  the  powers  to  be 
vested  in  your  Convention  by  the  act  of  Reference,  and  this  cir- 
cumstance delayed  my  answer  to  the  Convocation. 

"  All  expectations  of  information  on  the  subject  sufficient  to  ena- 
ble me,  conjointly  with  the  other  bishops  concerned,  to  give  any 
further  statement  of  that  unhappy  business,  being  now  at  an  end, 
I  have  thought  it  my  duty,  by  way  of  apology  to  your  Convoca- 
tion, to  make  this  candid  communication  of  the  subject  to  you,  and 
through  you  to  them. 

"  The  conversation  with  Bishop  Parker  above  cited,  contains  the 
substance  of  my  sentiments  on  the  subject  at  the  time,  and  with 
great  deference  to  the  opinion  of  the  three  learned  prelates,  who 
finally  determined  the  matter  in  the  House  of  Bishops,  I  have  seen 
nothing  as  yet  to  induce  me  to  alter  them.  There  is  a  wide  dif- 
ference to  be  sure  between  us  ;  but  this  difference  may  be  accounted 
for  by  supposing,  what  their  determination,  as  they  call  it,  would 
lead  us  to  suppose,  that  a  Canon  of  the  General  Convention  was 
necessary  to  clothe  them  with  authority  in  this  case,  which  I  did 

vol.  ii.  29 


450  APPENDIX. 

and  do  suppose  Christ  himself  gave  them  independently  of  any  lay 
or  clerical  authority  whatever. 

"As  for  advice,  my  dear  sir,  insulated  as  I  am  from  all  intercourse 
with  my  Rt.  Rev.  Brethren,  placed  in  a  corner  of  the  country 
where  I  can  seldom,  except  at  church  meetings  and  visitations,  see 
my  own  presbyters,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  an  ill  state  of  health,  I 
should  consider  it  a  high  degree  of  presumption  to  offer  it  indi- 
vidually to  the  good  Bishop  of  your  Church,  aided  as  he  is  by  his 
truly  pious  and  learned  presbyters.  However,  my  solicitude  for 
the  preservation  of  the  ancient  principles  of  the  Church,  impels 
me  to  hint  a  wish  that  your  Bishop  and  learned  presbyters  would 
make  a  solemn  pause,  and  well  weigh  the  consequences  to  the 
Church  of  Christ  before  they  suffer  themselves  to  be  induced  to 
pronounce  their  own  degradation  a  nullity,  for  I  think  it  may  well 
be  questioned,  whether  they  or  any  other  power  upon  earth,  in 
cases  of  this  sort,  are  competent  to  such  an  act.  Mr.  Rogers, 
indeed,  upon  his  true  repentance,  might  be  loosed  from  those  sins 
which  occasioned  his  degradation,  but  nothing  but  reordination  can, 
in  my  judgment,  restore  him  to  his  former  standing  in  the  Christian 
ministry.  In  this  sentiment,  I  think  I  am  supported,  not  only  by 
the  nature  of  the  commission  given  to  the  Church  by  Christ,  to 
bind  and  loose,  but  also  by  the  practice  of  the  Primitive  Church. 
Sure  I  am,  that  such  a  step,  was  it  to  be  taken  by  your  Convention 
at  this  time,  and  in  this  country,  when  and  where  the  minds  of  men 
on  the  subject  of  Church  discipline  are  so  very  unsettled,  and 
tremblingly  alive  to  what  they  call  Liberty,  would  militate  strongly 
against  all  ecclesiastical  authority  whatever,  so  necessary  to  the 
well-being  of  the  Church  of  Christ  upon  earth. 

"  If  this  unhappy  business  cannot  be  amicably  settled  before  in 
some  other  way,  rather  than  thus  endanger  so  important  a  pillar 
in  our  venerable  spiritual  edifice  founded  upon  the  Apostles  and 
Prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief  corner-stone,  I 
should  think  that  your  Convention  had  much  better  abide  by 
the  consequences,  until  the  meeting  of  our  next  General  Con- 
vention, when  they  may  avail  themselves  of  far  better  advice  than 
that  of 

"Dear  and  reverend  Sir,  your  sincere  friend  and  affectionate 
brother  in  Christ, 

"  Thomas  John  Claggett, 
"  Bishop  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  of  Maryland. 


APPENDIX.  451 

"  P.  S.  — If  you  can  make  it  convenient  to  send  me  a  dozen  num- 
bers of  the  "  Churchman's  Magazine,"  beginning  with  this  month,  I 
shall  forward  the  money  to  any  person  you  may  appoint.  Direct  to 
me  near  Upper  Marlborough,  Prince  George's  County,  Md." 


APPENDIX  B. 

"  There  was  presented  to  this  House  a  letter  signed  William  H. 
Winder,  enclosing  two  documents,  signed  Ammi  Rogers.  Mr. 
Winder  informs  this  House,  that  he  is  counsel  for  the  said  Ammi 
Rogers,  who,  in  the  documents  referred  to,  appeals  to  the  General 
Convention,  from  a  sentence  of  degradation  said  to  have  been 
passed  on  him  without  trial  or  hearing,  by  the  Right  Rev.  Bishop 
Jarvis,  of  Connecticut. 

"  This  House  having  considered  the  contents  of  the  aforesaid 
papers,  are  of  opinion  that,  agreeably  to  the  Constitution  of  this 
Church,  they  have  no  authority  to  act  on  an  appeal  in  regard  to 
the  matter  stated ;  and  that  there  is  no  existing  mode  by  which 
any  bishop  or  bishops  of  this  Church  can  take  cognizance  of  the 
conduct  of  any  other  bishop,  unless  at  the  desire  of  the  Conven- 
tion of  the  Diocese  to  which  such  a  bishop  should  belong,  and 
conformably  to  rules  of  process  by  them  established. 

"  And  whereas  this  House  acted  on  the  concerns  of  the  said 
Ammi  Rogers,  in  the  session  of  1804,  as  appears  by  the  min- 
utes ;  they  now  wish  it  to  be  known  that  their  proceedings  at  that 
time  originated  in  his  own  petition,  relative  to  the  following 
points :  — 

"  1.  Whether  he  belonged  to  the  Diocese  of  Connecticut,  or  to 
that  of  New  York. 

"  2.  The  recalling  which  he  proposed,  of  a  circular  letter  written 
by  Bishop  Jarvis,  forbidding  the  petitioner  to  perform  divine  ser- 
vice in  the  Diocese,  and  the  clergy  and  laity  of  the  same  to  coun- 
tenance him  as  a  minister. 

"  3.  A  candid  and  impartial  inquiry  into  his  conduct  and  char- 
acter. 

"  On  the  first  of  the  said  points,  the  House  then  assembled,  being 
assured  that  both  the  parties  were  disposed  to  submit  to  their 
determination,  declared  it  to  be,  that  Ammi  Rogers  was  a  clergy- 
man not  of  New  York,  but  of  Connecticut 


452  APPENDIX. 

"  The  second  point  being  a  matter  of  internal  concern  of  the 
Church  in  Connecticut,  was  not  acted  on  judicially  by  this  House ; 
although  as  their  opinion  was  expected  on  both  sides,  they  expressed 
it  as  it  was,  approbatory  of  the  measure. 

"  On  the  third  point,  they  were  of  opinion  that  Ammi  Rogers, 
far  from  having  been  treated  with  injustice,  had  not  received  a 
sentence  sufficiently  severe. 

"  To  the  opinions  thus  given,  no  addition  or  alteration  is  intended 
by  this  House ;  and  they  finally  dismiss  the  subject  from  their  con- 
sideration. 

"  This  House,  wishing  the  House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies 
to  be  informed  of  their  proceedings  on  the  application  now  before 
them,  direct,  that  the  Secretary  deliver  to  them  a  copy  of  the 
minute  now  made,  with  the  papers  on  which  it  is  grounded.  They 
also  direct  the  Secretary  to  deliver  a  copy  of  the  minute  to  Wil- 
liam H.  Winder,  esquire,  and  for  the  further  information  of  that 
gentleman,  to  deliver  with  it  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  of  this 
Church. 

"The  above  was  accordingly  communicated  to  the  House  of 
Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies,  and  a  message  was  received  from  them 
containing  the  following  unanimous  resolution  :  '  That  it  is  the 
opinion  of  this  House,  that,  agreeably  to  the  sixth  article  of  the 
Constitution,  the  General  Convention  have  no  cognizance  of  the 
case  of  Ammi  Rogers,  and  that  he  therefore  have  leave  to  with- 
draw his  petition.'  "  —  Journal  of  House  of  Bishops,  1808. 

"  There  was  no  doubt  on  the  minds  of  the  two  bishops  present, 
that  there  had  been  an  oversight  in  not  granting  to  this  man  a 
trial  in  the  Church  in  that  State.  But  the  oversight,  if  they  were 
correct  in  supposing  one,  was  not  theirs,  nor  was  it  in  their  power 
to  correct  it.  Nothing  could  have  been  easier  than  the  convicting 
of  him  of  faults  which  deserve  degradation.  But  it  did  not 
become  the  Bishops  to  advise  the  recalling  of  the  act,  and  the 
giving  of  him  a  trial."  —  Bishop  White's  Memoirs,  etc.,  p.  199. 


APPENDIX.  453 


APPENDIX  C. 

The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  letter  of  Mr.  Rayner,  to  Bishop 
Brownell,  upon  the  terms  of  which  his  sentence  of  suspension  from 
the  ministry  was  grounded  :  — 

"  Monroe,  October  9,  1827. 

"  Right  Rev.  and  Dear  Sir,  —  Although  I  am  not  conscious 
of  having  violated  any  Canon  or  Rubric  of  the  Episcopal  Church, 
in  which,  for  many  years,  I  have  had  the  honor  and  happiness  to 
officiate  as  a  minister  and  public  teacher;  and  although  I  have 
endeavored  with  great  care  and  diligence  to  read  and  study  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  and  to  teach  and  disseminate  only  such  doctrines 
as,  according  to  my  best  judgment,  'may  be  proved  by  most  certain 
warrants  of  the  same  ; '  yet  forasmuch  as  it  has  appeared  that  my 
views  of  Scripture  doctrine,  in  some  points,  which  are  thought 
important,  are  in  the  view  of  my  clerical  brethren  and  others 
considered  inconsistent  (if  not  expressly  with  the  Articles,  Creeds, 
and  Liturgy)  with  the  commonly  received  opinions  of  the  ministers 
and  members  of  the  Episcopal  Church  ;  and  whereas,  under  these 
circumstances,  there  is  little  hope  that  I  can  be  useful  as  a  clergy- 
man of  said  Church ;  I  hereby  beg  leave  to  resign  to  the  Bishop, 
as  well  my  official  standing  as  an  Episcopal  clergyman  in  this 
Diocese,  as  my  rectorship  of  the  parish  in  which  I  at  present  offi- 
ciate ;  and  though  the  terms  of  this  communication  are  not  the  same 
as  those  used  in  the  second  Canon  of  the  General  Convention  of 
1817  [Canon  vii.  1820],  yet  by  a  liberal  construction  of  that  Canon, 
I  believe  my  case  may  come  within  its  provisions.  I  trust,  there- 
fore, the  Bishop  will  consider  himself  at  liberty  to  record  this 
'  declaration  '  of  my  views,  and  also  to  take  such  other  measures  as 
in  his  judgment  the  Canon  may  require. 

"  I  am  aware  that  my  present  resignation  must  probably  deprive 
me  of  the  Bishop's  pastoral  superintendence,  which  I  sincerely 
regret.  That  it  should  also  forfeit  me  his  private  and  personal 
friendship  would  be  a  misfortune  to  which  I  truly  hope  I  shall  not 
be  subjected.  I  shall  still  humbly  claim  to  be  considered  as  a 
member  of  the  Church,  entitled  to  all  its  common  privileges. 
"  With  great  respect,  I  am,  Right  Reverend  and  Dear  Sir, 
"  Your  obedient  servant, 

"  Menzies  Rayner." 


454  APPENDIX. 

The  Bishop  in  his  annual  address  for  1828,  alluding  to  this  mat- 
ter, said :  — 

"  It  is  known  to  the  Convention  that  the  Rev.  Menzies  Rayner 
has  relinquished  his  ministry  in  this  Church,  and  connected  him- 
self with  another  religious  communion.  Having  communicated  to 
me  in  writing,  the  relinquishment  of  his  '  official  standing  as  an 
Episcopal  clergyman  in  the  Diocese,'  that  I  might  '  record  '  the 
same,  according  to  the  provisions  of  the  Canon,  in  that  case  made 
and  provided,  '  and  also  take  such  other  measures,  as  in  my  judg- 
ment the  case  might  require,'  I  have,  therefore,  recorded  his  said 
declaration  so  made ;  and  also,  in  the  presence  of  the  Rev. 
George  W.  Doane  and  the  Rev.  Norman  Pinney,  have  pronounced 
the  said  Menzies  Rayner  to  be  suspended  from  the  exercise  of  the 
ministry  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  have  recorded 
his  suspension,  pursuant  to  the  provisions  of  the  Canon  above 
referred  to.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Rayner,  by  making  his  suspension  the 
result  of  his  own  voluntary  act,  has  greatly  relieved  me  from  the 
pain  which  such  an  act  of  discipline  is  otherwise  calculated  to  cre- 
ate. And  however  we  may  regret  the  cause  which  has  led  to  it, 
we  are  not  to  be  judges  of  other  men's  consciences,  — '  to  his  own 
Master  he  standeth  or  falleth.'  " 


INDEX  TO  VOL.  II. 


A. 

Academy  of  Dissenters,  4. 

Acoaxset  River,  189. 

Adams,  John,  13.  161. 

Advent,  Church  of,  Boston,  405 

Alabama,  286,  287,  303. 

Albany,  N.  Y.,  191,  403. 

Allen,  William,  194. 

Alleghany  ridges,  286. 

"  Amen,"  how  used,  308,  309. 

America,  69,  255,  310. 

America,  Church  of,  372,  374. 

American  Church,  51,  373,  389. 

American  Clergymen,  300,  374. 

American  episcopate,  50,  51,  257. 

American  independence,  57,  171. 

American  minister,  193. 

American  prelates,  71,  373. 

American  republic,  110. 

American  vessels,  82. 

Americans,  82. 

Andover,  224. 

Andrews,  Rev.  George  B.,  277. 

Anglican  Church,  007. 

Annual  Convention  in  Conn.,  3,  7, 10, 

15,  18-20,  24,  45,  62,  72,  76,  91,  94- 

96,  114-117,  130.  147, 152,  175,  181, 

239,   309,  329,  340,  354,  373,  393, 

399,  413,  429. 
Annual  Report  of  Church  Scholarship 

Society,  269. 
Ansonia,  355. 
"  Answer  to  Mr.  Blatchford's  Letter." 

10. 
Ante-communion,  283,  284. 
"  Anti-circular,"  33. 
"  Apology  for  the  Bible,"  14. 
"  Appropriation  Act,"  161. 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  371,  373. 
Archbishop  Potter,  192. 
Arminian  principles,  4. 
Articles  and  Liturgy,  100,  150,  453. 
Articles  of  Helii>ion,  16,  17. 
Assistant  Bishop  of  New  York,  69 ; 

of  Conn.,  375-380,  392-395,  442. 
Assistant  Minister,  Trinity   Church, 

New  Haven,  100,  278;  N.  Y.  198. 
Atkinson,  Bishop,  389. 


Atlantic,  328. 

Atlantic  States,  287,  288. 

Auricular  Confession,  362. 

"  A  Voice  from  Connecticut,"  356. 


B. 


Babington,  Dr.,  194. 

Backus,  Azel,  163. 

Baldwin,  Rev.  Ashbel,  mentions  of, 
6,  8,  16,  21,  76,  99,  117,  177,  319, 
447  ;  chosen  delegate,  20,  145 ;  re- 
signs church  in  Stratford,  255;  con- 
version to  Episcopacy,  345 ;  Secre- 
tary of  Diocesan  and  General  Con- 
ventions, 256,  346  ;  farewell  letter, 
347 ;  death,  346. 

Baldwin,  Rev.  David,  76,  424. 

Ballston,  N.  Y.,  159. 

Baltimore,  53,  54. 

Baptists,  123,  207,  209. 

Barber,  Rev.  Daniel,  103. 

Barber,  Rev.  Virgil  H.,  99 ;  rejects 
lay  baptism,  103  ;  perversion,  102. 

Bass,  Bishop,  7-9,  71. 

Baylies,  189. 

Beach,  Rev.  Abraham,  29,  448. 

Beach,  Burraye,  67,  117,  145. 

Beach,  Rev.  John,  438. 

Beasley,  Dr.,  192. 

Beers,  Isaac,  24. 

Belfast,  Ireland,  194. 

Bemerton,  397. 

Benham,  Rev.  Benjamin,  103. 

Bennett,  Rev.  Dr.,  437. 

Berkeley  Divinity  School,  380,  381, 
419,  430. 

Bethany,  56,  58,  59,  153. 

Bethel,  315,  348,  385. 

Bethlehem.  57,  315. 

Birmingham,  Eng.,  194. 

Bishop,  Alexander,  40. 

Bishop  of  Conn.,  9,  30,  42,  48,  105, 
190,  355,  369,  440. 

Bishop  of  N.  Y.,  32,439. 

Bishop's  Fund,  26,  65,  92,  120-124, 
148,  149,  186,  261,  262,  293,  392- 
395. 


456 


INDEX. 


Bishop  of  New  Jersey,  118,  251. 

Bishop  of  North  Carolina,  356,  366, 
389. 

Blakeslee,  Rev.  Edward,  11. 

Blakeslee,  Rev.  Solomon,  31, 155-157. 

Blatchford,  Mr.,  9. 

Boardman,  Elijah,  145. 

Book  of  Common  Praver,  19,  44, 151, 
152,  217,  238,  244,  330,  421. 

Boston,  430. 

Bowden,  Rev.  John,  mentions  of,  2, 14, 
15,  27,  60,  67,  78  ;  chosen  principal 
academy,  3 ;  chosen  bishop,  5,  6 
declines,  7  ;  doctorated,  7  ;  profes 
sor  Columbia  College,  N.  Y.,  22 
controversy  with  Dr.  Miller,  202 ; 
review  of  letters,  203,  206. 

Brad  lev,  Ezra,  11,  20. 

Branford,  29,  384. 

Bridgeport,  9,  57,  59,  65,  175,  181, 
438 ;  St.  John's  Church  in,  11,  128, 
255,  315,  431  :  Christ  Church,  387; 
Church  of  Nativity,  408  ;  Trinity, 
432. 

Bridgewater,  315,  408. 

Brinsmaid,  Elder,  206. 

Bristol,  315,  429. 

"  Bristol  Academy,"  190,  196. 

British  crown,  171. 

British  interference,  172. 

British  seamen,  82. 

Broad  Brook,  849. 

Bronson,  Rev.  Tillotson,  mentions  of, 
20,  39,  43,  92,  99, 177,  180,  219,  263  ; 
principal  academy,  47  ;  convention 
sermon,  91  ;  doctorated,  145;  edits 
"  Churchman's  Magazine,"  228 ; 
death  and  character,  257-259. 

Brookfield,  103,  315. 

Brooklyn,  429,  438. 

Brownell,  George,  189. 

Brownell,  Hon.  Sylvester,  190. 

Brownell,  Rev.  Thomas  C,  183 ;  elect- 
ed bishop,  184;  acceptance,  185; 
autobiography,  189-199 ;  consecra- 
tion of,  217  ;  removal  to  Hartford, 
221;  first  visitation,  222;  removal 
to  New  Haven,  224  ;  mentions  of, 
227,  232,  246, 266,  317,  340-343,  351, 
378,  385,  394,  402,  430,  437  ;  prima- 
ry address,  235 ;  advocates  Sunday- 
schools,  238;  first  charge,  239; 
commentary  on  Prayer  Book,  244  ; 
president  of  college,  Hartford,  251 ; 
addresses  to  convention,  253,  256, 
259,  263-265,  279,  283,  289,  305, 311, 
315,  320, 324,  327,  356-367,  370,  379, 
381,  396,  454  ;  salary,  261  ;  visit  to 
South-western  States,  285-288  ;  re- 


tires from  t'e  college,  292 ;  salary 
from  diocese  increased,  293  ;  second 
charge,  295  ;  sails  for  New  Orleans, 
303 ;  third  charge,  309 ;  another 
journey  to  New  Orleans,  313  ;  fourth 
charge,  329-335  ;  calls  for  an  assist- 
ant, 375,  376  ;  presiding  bishop, 
388  ;  death  and  character,  439-443. 

Burgess,  Rev.  George,  336,  378 ; 
elected  bishop  of  Maine,  352 ;  fu- 
neral address,  440. 

Burhans,  Rev.  Daniel,  mentions  of, 
20,  39,  67,  99,  131,  319,  341;  doctor- 
ated, 300  ;  death,  371. 

Butler,  Rev.  Dr.,  196. 


Cabinet,  161. 

California,  389. 

Calvinism,  57,  60,  98,  99,  141,  144, 
182,  188,  270,  271. 

Calvin,  John,  60,  143,  330. 

Cambridge  platform,  205. 

Camp,  Rev.  Dr.,  438. 

Canaan,  349. 

Canon  law,  448,  449. 

Canada,  82. 

Canterbury,  Conn.,  278. 

Catholic  unity,  361. 

Center  Church,  109,  165. 

Central  Village,  386. 

Chandler,  Dr.,  44. 

Charles  II.,  169.  171. 

Charleston,  S.  C,  198. 

Chapin,  Rev.  A  B.,  318. 

Chapman,  Asa,  131, 145,  162. 

Chase,  Rev.  Philander,  60,  93,  114, 
117,  127,  131,  352,  388. 

Chatham,  153,  280,  301. 

Chauncey,  Israel,  206. 

Cheshire,  3,  5,  11,  22,  37,  48,  58,  76, 
112,  128,  129,  228,  232,  315,  370; 
academy  in,  9,  10,  15,  26,  45,  56, 
60,  65,  66,  179,  233,  246,  263-265, 
300,  323,  425. 

Chewstown,  57. 

Childs,  Caleb,  20. 

"  Christian  Zeal,"  sermon  on,  285. 

"  Chronicle  of  the  Church,"  319. 

"  Chronological  Introduction,"  370. 

Church  Catechism,  236,  238. 

Church  in  Connecticut,  constitution 
of,  1, 177,  243,  301, 315,  340  ;  canons 
of,  17,  18,  31,  38,  42,  47,  134,  243, 
265,  269,  273  ;  election  of  bishop  for, 
2-7,  116  ;  special  conventions,  2,  7, 
8,  76,  93,  133,  216  ;  grand  levy,  11 ; 


INDEX. 


457 


trouble  in,  29,  35,  38,  48,  49,  78, 
wealth  of,  65;    progress,  60,  75,  95, 

128,  152,  228,  257,  258,  338-340, 
353,  383  ;  bereavement,  91 ;  super- 
vision, 116,  132;  mentions  of,  26, 
77,  145,  150,  174,  185,  200,  203,  240, 
295,  318,  325,  372,  414,  434,  437, 
447-449,  452. 

Churches  in  Conn.,  115,  232. 

Church  of  England,  4,  144,  235,  243, 
249,  296,  345,  374,  390,  407,  440. 

"  Churchman's  Magazine,"  27,  47,  69, 
227,  259,  451. 

"  Churchman's  Choral  Companion," 
233. 

Churchmen  of  Connecticut,  16,  28,  97, 
234,  325,  382. 

Church  of  Rome,  105,  144,  176,  366. 

Church  Scholarship  Society,  266-269, 
410. 

Church,  Thomas,  190. 

Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States, 
53. 

Claggett,  Bishop,  33,  37,  50,  53,  69 ; 
letter  of,  447-451. 

Clark,  James,  20,  21. 

Clark,  Rev.  Dr.,  438. 

Cleghorn,  Dr.,  195. 

College  of  Connecticut,  Episcopal, 
petitions  for,  67,  68,  246 ;  char- 
tered, 247  ;  controversy  about,  249, 
250;  president  chosen,  251;  name 
changed,  251 ;  mentions  of,  269,  285, 
292,  294,  300,  313,  316. 

College  of  Jesuits,  104. 

Columbia,  S.  C,  192. 

Columbia  College,  7,  22. 

Communion  Sundays,  4,  231,  232. 

Confirmation,    rite    of,    71,    72,    127, 

129,  135,  137,  243,  316,  436  ;  office, 
282,  283. 

Congregationalism,  127,  161,  174,  206. 
Congregationalists,  98,  118,  123,  128, 

160,  162, 175,  196,  203,  207, 281,  408. 
"  Congregational  Episcopacy,"  203. 
Congregational    ministers,     58,    141, 

144,  165  200,  203,  280,  332. 
Congregational  societies,  57,  61,  109, 

124. 
Connecticut  Bible  Society,  145. 
"  Connecticut  Churchman,"  319. 
Connecticut,  clergy  of,  13,  17,  23,  29, 

32,  36,  49,  53,  70,  72,  96,  97,  116, 

141,    180,   201,  238,  244,  284,   304, 

319,  344,  377,  423,  426. 
Connecticut,  64,  98,  101,  102,  130, 131, 

153,  399,  431,  436. 
Connecticut  congressional  delegation, 

83. 


"Connecticut  Herald,"  122. 

Connecticut  River,  56,  153,  184,  303, 
354,  416. 

Connecticut,  new  civil  constitution 
for,  172,  174 ;  public  schools,  323  ; 
colony  of,  4,  160,  335. 

Connecticut,  State  of,  34,  55,  57,  61, 
67,  83,  84,  114,  162,  247,  317,  409, 
411. 

Considerations  about  second  College, 
249. 

Continental  army,  345. 

Continental  reformers,  333. 

Conventional  assessments,  120. 

Convocations,  8.  14,  16, 18,  20,  21,  27, 
29,  30,  37-43,  47,  70,  77,  179,  228, 
232,  238,  271,  344,  447,  449. 

Cooke,  Rev.  Samuel,  349. 

Council  or  Upper  House,  162,  163, 
170. 

Court-house,  108,  109,  217. 

Coxe,  Rev.  A.,  Cleveland,  340. 

Cranston,  Rev.  William,  133. 

Creeds,  453. 

Creek  nation,  287. 

Croes,  Rev.  John,  chosen  bishop,  116- 
118. 

Cromwell,  299 

Croswell,  Rev.  Harry,  becomes  rec- 
tor of  Trinity  parish,  New  Haven, 
112-115;  instituted,  127;  chosen 
delegate  to  general  convention, 
145  ;  preaches  election  sermon,  164 
-169;  mentions  of,  179,  180,  183, 
229,  302,  348,  349,  368,  438;  "so- 
ber appeal,"  210-215  ;  doctorated, 
300  ;  sermon,  401 ;  death  and  char- 
acter, 402-405. 

Croswell,  Rev.  William,  405. 

Cruse,  Rev.  Christian  F.,  265. 

Cumberland,  Eng.,  194. 

Cutler,  Rector,  4. 


D. 


Daggett,  Rev.  Dr.,  190. 

Daily  Morning  and  Evening  Prayer, 

308. 
Danbury,  20,  59,  153. 
Dark  Ages,  299,  392. 
Daubeny's  "  Guide  to  the  Church," 

23. 
Davis,  Bishop,  389. 
Davy,  Sir  Humphrey,  193. 
Day,  President,  164. 
Derby,  7,  18,  59,  65,  99, 153,  262,  336, 

438. 
Derbyshire,  194. 


458 


INDEX. 


Deism,  242. 

De  Lancey,  Bishop,  378. 

Denison,  Charles,  162. 

Dibblee,    Rev.    Ebenezer,    11,   438; 

death,   17. 
Dickinson,  Tertullus,  195. 
Dighton,  190. 
Diocesan  Convention,  43,  53,  65,  79, 

113,   129,   226,  283,  288,  307,   355, 

393,  412,  435. 
Diocesan  missions,  151,  152,  253,  353, 

354,  388,  413,  415. 
Diocesan  Missionary  Society,  96,  151, 

152. 
Diocese  of  Connecticut,  8,  19,  21,  31, 

37,  40,  56,  70,    104,  133,  134,  148, 

186,   223,  237,   273,  369,  373,    382, 

435,  447,  451. 
Diocese  of  New  Jersey,  117. 
Diocese  of  New  York,  29,  30,  77,  125, 

131,  134,  176,  451. 
Dissenters,  364. 
"  Dissertation     upon    Extraordinary 

Awakenings,"  139. 
Doane,  Rev.  George  W.,  251,  454. 
"  Domestic  and  Foreign   Missionary 

Society,"  285,  286,  354. 
Donahaddie,  194. 
Duche,  Rev.  Jacob,  97. 
Duche,  Thomas  S.,  97. 
Durham,  430. 
Dummer,  Jeremiah,  4. 
Dwight,  Dr.,  212,  428. 


E. 


Eagle  Bank,  New  Haven,  261-263, 394 

East  Bridgeport,  433. 

Eastern  Connecticut,  387. 

Eastern  Diocese,  69,  114. 

Eastern  States,  288. 

East  Haddam,  59. 

East  Haven,  59. 

Easter  meetings,  340. 

East  Windsor  Hill,  207. 

"  Ecclesiastical  History  "  of  Mosheim, 

191,  379. 
Echard's  History,  191. 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  332. 
Election  Sermon,  163,  164,  169,  203. 
Elizabethtown,  21. 
Elton,  John  P.,  382. 
Emery,  Rev.  Dr.,  438. 
Enfield,  408,  430. 
England,  8,  52, 69,  81,  87,  97, 127,  171, 

193,  194,  205,  228,  235,  249,  299, 

326-328  365,  371,  372. 
English  Bishops,  207. 


English  Church,  308. 

English  Kei'ormation,  326,  361. 

English  theology,  23. 

Episcopacy,  adversaries  of,  12;  in 
Connecticut,  406. 

"  Episcopacy  or  perdition,"  142,  209. 

Episcopal  Academy,  3,  6,  10,  16,  22, 
60,  70,  100,  102,  216,  263,  299,  314, 
347,  353,  370. 

Episcopal  Church,  24,  27,  28,  58,  61, 
64,  84,  100,  105,  118,  140,  142,  148, 
162,  169,  174,  192,  200,  208,  210, 
225,  274,  304,  313,  318,  326,  400, 
403,  438,  453. 

"Episcopal  claims,"  202. 

Episcopalians,  21,  67,  68,  93,  94,  119, 
121,  123,  141,  160-162,  165,  196, 
200,  209,  231,  237,  247,  248,  251, 
264,  272,  288,  303,  323,  336,  384. 

Episcopal  jurisdiction,  115,  221. 

Episcopal  office,  38,  88,  109,  116,  220. 

Episcopal  parishes,  64. 

Episcopal  students,  4. 

Episcopal  visitations,  79,  95,  115,  134, 
138,  155,  244,  317. 

"Episcopal  Watchman,"  259,  318. 

Episcopate  colonial,  374. 

Episcopate  of  Connecticut,  1,  5,  7,  9, 
23,  54,  72,  79-81,  87,  92-96,  118, 
127,  131,  178,  184,  217.  221,  262, 
266,  293,  380,  383,  394, 417,  419,  441. 

Episcopate  of  New  Jersey,  117. 

Episcopate  of  New  York,  77. 

"  Errors  of  the  Times,"  329. 

Essex,  302. 

Europe,  16,  67,  193, 195,  299,  310,  365, 
366,  369,  426. 


Fairfield,  59,  153,  255,  384. 

Fairfield  Church,  428. 

Fairfield,  N.  Y.,  103. 

Fairfield  County,  153,  175,  184,  378, 

379,  416. 
Fair  Haven,  106,  336,  349,  384. 
"  Fair  Haven  Society,"  106. 
Falmouth,  193. 
Farmington,  408. 
•'  Farewell  Address,"  294. 
Fathers,  177,  202. 
Fayetteville,  N.  C,  113. 
Federal  Constitution,  421. 
Federalists,  161,  170,  171. 
"First   Ecclesiastical   Society,"  New 

Haven,  106,  107,  109,  141,  210,  214 ; 

Windham,  280. 
France,  13. 


INDEX. 


459 


"  Freemen's  Meeting,"  123, 163. 
French  Revolution,  13,  298. 
"  Friends'  Meeting-House,"  58. 
Fordham,  N.  Y.,  366. 


G. 


Gambier,  249. 

Ganges,  372. 

Gear,  Rev.  Ezekiel  G.,  115. 

Geer,  Rev.  Alpheus,  115. 

General  Assembly,  3,  23,  67,  68,  93, 
120,  121,  124,  131,  158,  164,  166, 
169-172,  247,  251,  280,  393. 

General  Court,  190. 

General  Confession,  308,  309. 

General  Convention,  delegates  to,  20, 
30,  145,  217,  256,  346,  403 ;  canons 
of,  32,  56,  76,  134,  221,  273,  303, 
450-454;  meetings,  33,  53-56,  69, 
70,  145,  222,  223,  282,  308,  366, 
411;  mentions  of,  16,  19,  37,  38, 
48,  103,  146,  224,  226,  227,  238,  251, 
282-285,  304,  339  ;  journal  of,  40, 
288,  449. 

General  election,  164. 

General  government,  423. 

General  Missionary  Society,  304. 

"  General  Protestant  Episcopal  Sun- 
day-school Union,"  238. 

General  Theological  Seminary,  222- 
227   229  246 

Geneva,  N.  Y.,  226 ;  Switz.  299. 

Germany.  299. 

Georgetown,  D.  C,  103. 

Georgia,  133,  197. 

Giant's  Causewav,  194. 

Gibbs,  Colonel,  193. 

Gibbs,  Rev.  William,  408. 

Gilbert,  Rev.  Joseph  M.,  186. 

Glasgow,  195. 

Glastenburv,  57,  315,  408. 

Glenville,  336. 

Gloucester,  Eng.,  235. 

Goodrich,  Professor,  213. 

"  Grand  Levy,"  65. 

Great  Britain,  82,  83,  123,  193. 

Green,  New  Haven,  106,  108,  109. 

Greenfield  Hill,  428. 

Greenwich,  336,  384,  438. 

Gregson  Glebe,  106. 

Griswold,  Rev.  A.  V.,  consecrated 
bishop,  69  ;  mentions  of,  54,  114- 
116,  199,  217 

Groton,  154,  156,  336. 

Guilford,  147,  152,  179,  315,  424, 
437. 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  286. 


H. 


Hallam,  Rev.  Dr.,  438. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  403. 

Hannibal,  312. 

Hartford  Convention,  171. 

Hartford  County.  378. 

Hartford,  Christ  Church  in,  21,  59, 
60,  93,  153,  221,  276,  294,  309,  352, 
395,  425;  mentioned,  65,  92,  117, 
120,  127,  163,  165,  172,  249,  274, 
285,  287,  289,  318,  329,  336,  342, 
386,  440 ;  college  at,  252,  263,  300, 
325  ;  St.  John's  Church,  340,  378  ; 
Trinity  Church,  430. 

Harwinton,  59. 

Hawks,  Rev.  Francis  L.,  278,  303. 

Hayden,  Mr.  H.  Sidney,  386. 

Hazardville,  430. 

Heathcote,  Caleb,  407. 

Heber,  Bishop,  288. 

Hebron,  154-157,  277. 

Henry  VIIL,  361. 

Herbert,  George,  397. 

Heretics,  64. 

Heron,  John  M.,  302. 

"  Historiographer  of  the  Church," 
370. 

Hitchcocksville,  278. 

Hobart,  Rev.  John  H.,  mentions  of, 
54,  58,  77,  78,  102,  104,  115,  135, 
142,  143,  147,  151,  153-157,  184, 
197,  199,  209,  210,  214,  217-221, 
277,  282.  285;  consecrated  bishop 
of  New  York,  69 ;  sermon  in  New 
Haven,  125-127  ;  provisional  bishop 
of  Connecticut,  131-133,  178:  let- 
ters, 165,  183  ;  compensation  for  ex- 
penses, 186  ;  charge,  176. 

Holcomb,  Rev.  Frederick,  86,  87,  184. 

Holly,  Isaac,  Jr.,  43. 

Hooker,  177. 

Home,  23. 

Housatonic,  71,  135. 

House  of  Bishops,  34,  37,  48,  55,  70, 
146,  282,  366,  373,  389,  390,  447- 
452. 

House  of  Clerical  and  Lay  Deputies, 
34,  223,  283,  388,  452. 

House  of  Representatives,  83. 

How,  Rev.  Dr.,  198,  209. 

Hubbard,  Rev.  Bela,  8,  9,  84,  99,  110, 
114,  438  ;  death,  85-87. 

Hudson,  N.  Y.,  112,  403. 

Huggeford,  Dr.,  195. 

Humphrey,  Rev.  Aaron,  115. 

Humphreys,  Rev.  Hector,  214,  215. 
251. 


460 


INDEX. 


Humphreysville,  153. 
Huntington..  69,  65,  84,  99, 139, 144. 
Huntington,  Kev.  Dr.,  430. 


Ignatius,  176. 

Illinois,  352,  388. 

Independence  of  the  Colonies,  20, 171. 

India,  288. 

"  Induction,"  and  "  Institution,"  19. 

Indulgences,  362. 

Infidels,  64. 

Infidelity,  298,  359. 

Ingersoll,    Jonathan,    67,    177,    212; 

Lieutenant-Governor,  123, 160,  162, 

217. 
Ireland,  193,  194. 
Island  of  St.  Croix,  5. 
Italy,  391. 
Ives,  Levi  S.,  D.  D.,  bishop  of  N.  C, 

356 ;   abandons   the  church  and   is 

deposed,  366,  389. 
Ives,  Rev.  Reuben,  58/99,  217  ;  death, 

319. 


Jones,  Rev.  William,  of  Nayland,  14, 
23. 

Johnson,  Rev.  Dr.,  406. 

Johnson,  Hon.  Samuel  W.,  117,  121, 
162,  177, 185. 

Jubilee  of  the  Venerable  Society,  371- 
374,  388,  389. 

Judd,  Rev.  Bethel,  96,  182,  183,  185  ; 
on  Presbyterian  ordination,  201  ; 
doctorated,  300  ;  principal  of  acad- 
emy, 300,  301. 

Judd,  Rev.  Jonathan,  130. 


K. 


Kemp,  Bishop,  425. 

Kent,  57,  221,  277. 

Kentucky,  286. 

Kewley,    Rev.  John,    M.  D.,  rector 

at  Middletown.    100,    101;    of  St. 

George's  Church,  New  York,  102 ; 

returns  to  Romish  Church.  102. 
King  Charles  the  Second,  169. 
Knox,  John,  331. 
Korah,  52. 


J. 


Jarvis,  Rev.  Abraham,  elected  bishop 
of  Connecticut,  and  declines,  2,  3  ; 
again  elected,  7  ;  convention  ser- 
mon, 2;  consecration,  8-10;  first 
official  acts,  11 ;  mentions  of,  12,  20, 
29-39,  54,  55,  69,  77,  78,  91,  93,  116, 
131,  151,  154,  157,  400,  424,  448, 
451 ;  removal  to  Cheshire,  15 ;  to 
New  Haven,  27  ;  support,  26  ;  ad- 
dresses, 50-53,  62-64,  73,  75,  79- 
81  ;  consecration  of  churches  by, 
58,  59  ;  confirmations,  72  ;  ordina- 
tions, 86,  87,  102  ;  death  and  char- 
acter, 87-90. 

Jarvis,  Rev.  Samuel  I\,  87  ;  address 
at  laying  corner-stone  in  New 
Haven,  110;  sermon.  310;  "Voice 
from  Connecticut."  356 ;  death, 
369,  370. 

Jesuitism,  357. 

Jewett  City,  156. 

Jewett,  Kev.  Stephen,  262 ;  death, 
424,  425. 

Jews,  64. 

Jones,  Rev.  Cave,  77,  78. 

Jones,  Rev.  Isaac,  ordained,  58 ;  death, 
369. 

Jones,  William,  deputy  Governor,  58. 


Lake  Erie,  286. 

Lambeth  church-yard,  97. 

Landaff  or  Llandaff,  bishop  of,  14. 

Lansingburgh,  N.  Y.,  195. 

Lay  delegates,  95. 

Learning,  Rev.  Dr.,  84,  89. 

Ledyard.  336. 

Leeds,  Mr.  Clary,  39,  40,  43, 

Legislature,  1,  23,  26,  64,  68,  70,  80, 

106, 120-123,  159,  162, 165, 172,  227, 

248,  380,  393. 
Leslie,  Charles,  14,  23. 
Litchfield,  24,  32,  57,  118,  135,  161, 

345,  369,  384. 
Litchfield  County,  184,  278,  352,  378, 

416. 
Liturgy,  16,   75,   98,   118,   282,    284, 

346. 
Little  Compton,  189,  190. 
Liverpool,  195. 
London,  193,  194. 
Long  Hill,  349. 
Long  Island,  345. 
Lough  Neagh,  194. 
Louisiana,  286,  303,  313. 
Lower  House,  68,  121,  163,  346. 
Luther,  331. 
Lutherans,  68. 
Lyman,  General,  193. 


INDEX. 


461 


M. 


Madison,  James,  President,  U.  S.,  193. 

Maine,  352,  378,  440. 

Malbone,  Godfrey,  429. 

Manchester,  386. 

Manchester,  Eng.,  194. 

Mansfield,  Rev.  Dr.,  31,  99,  125,  184, 

243,  280,  424. 
Mansfield,  Rev.  Z.  H.  405. 
McDonald,  Rev.  Daniel,  86. 
Marbledale,  57,  58,  385,  426. 
Marsh,  Rev.  Truman,  185,319,  369. 
Maryland,  100,  425. 
Massachusetts,  7,  69,  71,  98,  189,  190. 
Maxy,  Rev.  Dr.,  190,  192. 
Mead,  Rev.  Dr.,  438. 
Medley,  Bishop,  389. 
Melancthon,  331. 

"  Memoirs  of  Plymouth  Colony,"  190. 
"Memoirs    of   Protestant    Episcopal 

Church,"  49,  223. 
"Memoirs  "  of  Ammi  Rogers,  159. 
Meriden,  56,  65,  134,  351. 
Methodists,  68..  106, 123,  169,  207,  209. 
"  Middle  Brick  Meeting-House,"  106, 

107. 
Middle  Haddam,  385. 
Middle  Temple,  4. 
Middlefield,  430. 
Middlesex  County,  378. 
Middletown,  2,  11,  22,  76,  100,  101, 

115,  153,  178,  221,  280,  369,  370, 

380,  384,  430,  433. 
Miles,  Rev.  Smith,  31. 
Milford,  384. 

Miller,  Dr.,  Letters  of,  202. 
Milton,  57,  315. 
Miner,  Simeon  H.,  162. 
Missionary  Bishops,  389. 
Mississippi,  286,  303. 
Mobile,  303,  313. 
Monroe,  56,  272. 
Moore,  Benjamin,   Bishop    of    New 

York,  31,41,49,58,  69,448. 
Morgan,  Rev.  Allen  C,  314. 
Muirson,  George,  407. 


N. 

Narraganset  Indians,  189. 

Natchez,  303. 

Naugatuck,  56,  135,  384. 

Nayland,  Eng.,  14. 

New  Britain,  315,  351. 

New  Brunswick,  389;  N.  J.,  116. 

Newburyport,  7. 


New  Canaan,  20,  153. 
New  England,  57,   98,  126,  203-206, 
212,  215,  225,  229,  231,  287,  299, 

355,  372,  373,  407,  410,  423,  430. 
New  England  States,  83,  114,  378. 
New  Hampshire,  69,  439. 

New  Hartford,  384. 

New  Haven  Colon y,  58. 

New  Haven  County,  56, 184,  378.  416. 

New  Haven,  2,  4,  24,  27,  47,  53,  65,  68, 
69,  72,  73,  77,  88,  92,  94,  95,  110, 
112,  113, 121-130,  134, 142,  144,  151, 
153,  163,  170,  181-183,  210,  214, 
216,  223-225,  233,  246,  315,  319, 
340,  347,  349,  387,  403;  Trinity 
parish  or  church  in,  5,  12,  85,  87, 
100,  106,  124,  133,  217,  229,  233, 
276,  401,  433;  St.  Paul's  Chapel, 
278,   348;    St.   Thomas's   Church, 

356,  385  ;   mission   churches,  385 ; 
parishes  in,  399. 

New  Jersey,  21,  28,  116-118,  251. 

"  New  Light  Theology,"  332. 

New  London,  59,  155,  182,  300,  350, 
354,  413,  438. 

New  London  County,  158,  378. 

New  Milford,  58,  59,  135,  315. 

New  Orleans,  286,  303,  313,  426. 

Newport,  R.  I.,  8. 

New  Preston,  57,  277. 

Newtown,  20,  46,  47,  59,  65,  135,  257, 
336,  371,  438. 

New  Stratford,  56,  59,  135,  272. 

New  York  State,  7,  35,  53,  58,  69, 103, 
110,  133,  150,  153,  314,  387;  city, 
15,  22,  27,  28,  39,  48,  49,  54,  70, 
102,  128,  135,  145,  185,  193-199, 
202, 221-227,  246,  285,  302-304,  341, 
351,  357,  448  ;  Trinity  Church,  77, 
183,  198,  221,  226. 

New  Zealand,  372. 

Nichols'  Farms,  350. 

Nichols,  John,  47. 

Noble,  Rev.  B.  G.,  115,  178,  181. 

North  Carolina,  287,  356,  366. 

North  Church,  109. 

Northern  New  York,  30. 

Northford,  349. 

North  Groton,  335. 

North  Guilford,  153. 

North  Haven,  315. 

Norwalk,  8,  10,  20,  22,  59,  84,  96, 135, 
137,  145,  266,  278,  289,  335,  438. 

Norwich,  158,  243,  350,  387,  438; 
Christ  Church  in,  187,  276,  350, 
370;  Trinity  Church,  355,  385. 

Norwich  Landing,  59. 

Norwich  Town,  405. 

Norwich  University,  Vt.,  318. 


462 


INDEX. 


"Notes  of  a  true  church,"  361. 
Notitiae  Parochiales,  56,  77. 
Nott,  Rev.  Dr.,  191,  192. 


Office  of  Institution,  18,  19,  21. 

"  Order  of  Morning  Prayer,"  346. 

Orders,  question  of,  200. 

Ordinations,  86,  87,  115. 

Oregon,  389. 

Oxford,  135,  315. 

Oxford,  England,  326  ;  bishop  of,  374. 

Oxford  Divines,  326. 

Oxford  Tracts,  327,  335. 

Oxford  University,  10,  329. 


P. 


Pacific  Coast,  389. 
Paddock,  Rev.  Seth  B.,  370. 
Paine's  "  Age  of  Reason,"  14. 
Papacy,  10. 
Papal  Hierarchy,  176. 
Parish  or  Society,  61,  63. 
Parish  School  of  Trinity  Church,  433. 
Parker,  Bishop,  33,  41,  448,  449. 
Pastoral  theology,  224. 
Pennsylvania,  199. 
Perkins,  Rev.  Dr.,  168. 
Perry,  Nathaniel,  20. 
Perry,  Rev.  Philo,  11,  29,  30,  34. 
Teters,  John  S.,  162. 
Philadelphia,  227,  237,  238,  285,  303. 
Phoenix  Bank,  120,  123,  124,  160. 
Pilgrim  Fathers,  287. 
Pinckney,  Mr.,  193. 
Pine  Meadow,  384,  429. 
Pinney,  Rev.  Norman,  454. 
Pittsburgh,  286. 
Plainfiekl,  278. 
Plainville,  408. 
Plumb,  Rev.  Elijah  G.,  76. 
Plymouth,  59,  135,  201. 
Pomfret,  278. 

Pope  of  Rome,  176,  177,  361. 
"Popery,  Puseyism,  and  Prelacy,"  329. 
Poquetannock,  156,  335. 
Portland,  153,  301,  438. 
Port  Patrick,  194. 
Portugal,  391. 
Potter,  Rev.  Dexter,  336. 
Presbyterian  Church,  191. 
Presbyterians,  201,  207,  209. 
Presbyterianism,  122. 
Presbyterian  ordination,  200 ;  doubt- 
ful, 201,  202. 


Presbyterian  Society,  408. 

Presbytery,  10. 

Preston,  335,  336. 

Priestly  Absolution,  362. 

Prindle,  Rev.  Chauncey,  56. 

Princeton,  224. 

Prince  George's  County,   Maryland, 

451. 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  20,  21, 

28,  49,  223,  226,  234,  246,  247,  251, 

252,  267,  273,  336,   344,  388,  390, 

410,  419,  435,  454. 
"  Protestant    Episcopal     Theological 

Education  Society,"  226. 
Providence,  R.  I.,  190,  203. 
Provoost,  Bishop,  7,  8,  30,  69,  70,  87. 
Purgatory,  362. 
Puritanism,  231,  331. 
Puritans,  98,  363. 
Putnam,  Daniel,  185. 


Q- 


Quakers,  196,  207. 


R. 


Raikes,  Robert,  235,  236. 

Raleigh,  N.  C,  287. 

Rationalism,  359. 

Rayner,  Rev.  Menzies,  instituted  rec- 
tor, Hartford,  21 ;  removes  to  Hun- 
tington, 59,  60  ;  publications,  139- 
144  ;  mentions  of,  22,  99,  181,  209, 
214,  454 ;  controversies  and  law- 
suits, 270-273 ;  charged  with  un- 
sound teachings,  273 ;  suspended, 
and  becomes  preacher  among  Uni- 
versalists,  274,  275  ;  letter,  453. 

Ravenscroft,  Bishop,  287. 

Redding,  65,  302. 

Reformation,  299,  329. 

Reformation,  English,  326,  327,  330, 
361,  363. 

Reformers,  363. 

"  Report  on  the  State  of  the  Church," 
339. 

Republicans  or  Democrats,  170, 171. 

Revolution  or  Revolutionary  War, 
57,  123,  172,  190,  276,  335,  336,  384 

Rhode  Island,  6,  55,  69,  97,  189,  190. 

Richmond,  Rev.  William,  285. 

Ridgefield,  335. 

Ripton,  60,  135,  243,  271,  272. 

Riverton,  278. 

Robinson,  Col.  Beverly,  195. 

Rogers,  Ammi,  fabricates  certificate- 


INDEX. 


463 


and  is  ordained  in  New  York,  29, 
30  ;  returns  to  Conn.,  and  forbidden 
to  officiate  in  its  cliurches,  30-33 ; 
appeals  to  House  of  Bishops,  33- 
36  ;  complains  of  the  decision  against 
him,  and  degraded,  37,  447-452 ; 
trouble  at  Stamford  about  him,  38- 
44 ;  case  renewed,  47-53 ;  sues 
Bishop  Jarvis,  53,  54  ;  mentions  of, 
89,  154-157 ;  arraigned  for  crime 
and  convicted,  158;  last  days  and 
death,  159. 

Rogers,  Kev.  Evan,  20. 

Roman  Catholics,  68,  391. 

Roman  Catholic  countries,  390. 

Romanizers,  357,  368. 

Romanism,  359,  361,  363,  390,  391. 

Roman  pontiff,  177. 

Rome,  366. 

Romish  Church,  299. 

Roxbury,  154. 

Rubrics,  17,  238,  453. 


"  Sabbath-day  houses,"  228. 

"  Saints'  perseverance,"  144,  145. 

Salem,  56,  135. 

Salisbury,  20,  57,  277,  384. 

Saltonstall,  Governor,  4. 

Sanger,  Dr.,  194. 

Saratoga  County,  30. 

Saybrook,  280,  281. 

Saybrook   platform,  64,  143,  209,  248. 

Savannah,  133,  198. 

Schenectady,  30,  191,  196-198. 

Scotland,  24,  194,  299. 

Scovill,  J.  L.  M  ,  382. 

Scovill,  Wm.  H.,  382. 

Seaburv,  Bishop,  1,  7,  23.  59,  96,  97, 

103, 135,  165,  220,  255,  345, 355,  371. 
Searle,  Rev.  Mr.,  145,  146. 
"  Second  Charge,"  295. 
Second  College  in  Conn.,  249. 
"Serious  Call,"  207-215. 
Seymour,  57,  153,  379. 
Sharon,  57,  221,  277. 
Sheffield,  Mr.  Joseph  E.,  433. 
Shelton,  Rev.  Philo,  16,  20,  39, 76,  99, 

128,  131,   177,   185,   438;    resigns 

church  at  Bridgeport,  255 ;   death, 

256. 
Shepard,  Rev.  Dr.,  190. 
Sherred,  Mr.  Jacob,  226. 
Sherwood,   Rev.   Reuben,   114,    115, 

135,  289. 
"  Short  and  easy  method  with  Deists," 

14. 


Sigourney,  Charles,  94,  131,  145,  394. 

Silliman,  Professor,  193. 

Simsbury,  59. 

Smith,  John  Cotton,  161. 

Smith,  Nathan,  67,  92,  123,  131,  185. 

Smith,  Rev.  William,  consecration 
sermon,  8-10 ;  mentions  of,  16,  128, 
145,  232,  233  ;  compiles  institution 
office,  18,  19  ;  principal  of  acade- 
my, 22  ;  resigns,  46  ;  death,  243. 

"  Sober  Appeal,"  210-215. 

Society  for  Increase  of  Ministry  char- 
tered, 410. 

Society  for  Promotion  of  Christian 
Knowledge,  73,  151,  152,  201,  222, 
253,  266,  278,  281,  305,  307,  338, 
387,  413. 

Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel,  335,  371 ;  solemn  jubilee, 
372,  388,  389. 

"  Society  for  the  Relief  of  Decayed 
Clergymen,"  344. 

Socinianism,  331. 

Southburv,  144,  207. 

South  Carolina,  192,  389. 

South  End,  169. 

Southington,  134. 

Southern  States,  197. 

South  Norwalk,  409. 

Southport,  315,  384,  428. 

Spencer,  Bishop,  389. 

Stamford,  20,  33,  38-40,  43,  131,  212, 
335,  384,  409,  425,  438. 

Standing  Committee,  6,  9,  16,  36,  92, 
95,  109,  114,  115,  132,  151,180,  181, 
216, 256,  257,  270-273,  346 ;  laymen 
chosen,  177. 

Standing  Committee  of  New  York, 
30_34 

"  Standing  Order,"  118, 139, 160,  173, 

174,  404. 
State  Conventions  and  Convocations, 

18,  448,  449. 
State  House,  172, 184. 
Stiles,  President,  163,  203-205,  248. 
Stonington,  83,  351. 
Stratfield,  15,  59. 
Stratford,  5,  24,  91, 115,  255,  273,  346, 

406,  407,  447. 
Sunday-schools,  138,  235-238. 
Supreme  Court,  54,  158. 


Tashua,  59,  153,  349. 

Taunton,  190. 

Tariffville,  408. 

Taylor,  Rev.  N.  W.,  141-143,  214. 


464 


INDEX. 


Thatcher,  Gamaliel,  20. 

Theological  Institution,  N.  Y.,  227. 

The  Trisagion,  309. 

"  Third  Charge,"  309. 

Thompsonville,  408. 

Thorpe,  Thomas,  144. 

Todd,  Rev.  Ambrose,  31 ;  death,  84. 

Todd,  Rev.  Ambrose  S.,  424,  425. 

"  Toleration,"  161. 

Toleration  party,  161. 

Tolland  County,  378,  417. 

Totten,  Rev.  Silas,  D.  D.,  314. 

Town,  Ithiel,  127. 

"  Tracts  for  the  Times,"  326,  328. 

Transubstantiation,  364. 

Trenton,  20. 

"  Trinity  Church  Home,"  433. 

Trinity   College,  251,  355,   377,  379, 

381,  418.  426  ;  graduates  of,  294, 405. 
Troy,  N.  Y.,  196. 
Trumbull,  115,  153,  315. 
"  Trustees  for  receiving  Donations  for 

the  Support  of  a  Bishop,"  124. 
"  Trustees  of  Aged  and  Infirm  Cler- 
gy, and  Widows'  Fund,"  345. 
"  Trustees  of  Donations  and  Bequests 

for  Church  Purposes,"  431,  435. 
Tudor,  Samuel,  92. 
Turks,  64. 
Turner,  Rev.  Samuel  H.,  D.  D.,  224, 

229. 
Tuscaloosa,  303. 
Tyler,  Rev.  Bennett,  207  ;  on   saints' 

perseverance,  144,  145. 
Tyler,  Rev.  John,  31,  99,  188,  243, 

438. 


U. 


Union,  68,  225,  247,  419,  449. 

Union  College,  191-193,  195. 

Unitarian  Society,  430. 

"  United  Society,"  106,  109. 

United  States,  13,  18,  21,  53,  67,68, 
82,  95,  193,  237,  251,  304,  345,  352, 
370,  388,  390,  410,  421,440. 

Universalism,  187,  259,  271. 

Universalists,  271. 

Universalist  Society,  274. 

University  of  Columbia,  S.  C,  192. 

Upper  House,  162. 

Upper  Marlborough,  451. 

Ure,  Dr.,  195. 


Validity  of  Presbyterian  Ordination, 

10. 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  286. 


Vermont,  69,  103. 

Vesuvius,  13. 

Vestry  of  Trinity  Church,  New  Haven, 

12,  107,  229. 
Viets,  Rev.  Mr.,  408. 


W. 

Wainwright,  Rev.  J.  M.,  153, 185,  221. 

Wallingford,  30,  349. 

Wardens  and  Vestrymen,  61,  64. 

Warehouse  Point,  57,  59,  115,  385. 

War  of  1812,  171. 

Warren,  Rev.  Joseph,  22,  31. 

Washington,  57,  243. 

Washington  College,  247,  250 ;  first 
president,  251  ;  name  changed,  251 ; 
mentions  of,  316. 

Washington  Territory,  389. 

Waterbury,  11,  59,  65,  99,  102,  103, 
134,  135,  137,  239,  314,  344,  350, 
373-375,  382,  398,  413,  438. 

Watertown,  49,  135,  384. 

Watson,  Bishop,  14. 

Westbury,  59. 

Western  New  York,  378. 

West  Indies,  67. 

West  Hartford,  168,  336,  386. 

West  Haven,  12. 

Westminster  Abbey,  371,  374. 

Westminster  Divines,  333. 

Westminster  Catechism,  248. 

Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  143. 

Westport,  Christ  Church,  315;  Holy 
Trinity,  431. 

Westport,  Mass.,  189. 

Weston,  153. 

West  Rock,  126. 

Westville,  315. 

Wheaton,  Rev.  N.  S.,  visits  England, 
249  ;  defends  the  college,  250 ;  ad- 
dress at  laying  corner-stone  of  new 
church,  276  ;  president  of  college, 
294 ;  mentions  of,  302,  314 ;  re- 
moves to  New  Orleans,  313  ;  death 
and  character,  424-427. 

White,  Bishop,  8,  33,  34,  36,  37,  41, 
49,  53,  69,  87,  97, 103, 199,  222,  223, 
233,  237,  304,  440;  consecration 
sermon,  217. 

White,  Calvin,  ordained,  11 ;  joins 
Church  of  Rome,  104 ;  displaced 
from  ministry,  105. 

Whitefield,  332. 

"  White  Haven  Society,"  106. 

Whiting,  Dr.  Samuel  B.,  302. 

Whitlock,  Rev.  Henry,  84 ;  sermon 
of,  85,  86 ;    mentions  of,  100,  110, 


INDEX. 


465 


113,  114;  health  declines,  111,  112  ; 
resigns  parish,  112  ;    death,  113. 

Wilberforce,  Bishop,  374. 

Wilkinson,  Jemima,  58. 

Williams  College,  84. 

Williams,  Rev.  John,  D.  D.,  186; 
sermon  at  New  London,  355  ;  chos- 
en assistant  bishop,  377  ;  consecra- 
tion, 378;  resigns  Trinity  College, 
380  ;  salary  of,  395  ;  addresses  to 
Convention,  398,  410,  417,  420, 
434,  436 ;  sermons,  402,  412,  443  ; 
mentions  of,  384,  406,  426,  428,  430. 

Wilton,  153,  429. 

Wilson,  James,  203,  206. 

Winder,  Wm.  H.,  451,  452. 

Windham,  280. 

Windham  County,  417. 

Windsor,  336,  386. 

Woburn,  206. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  chosen  Governor, 
161 ;  message,  162,  171 ;  innovation 
by,  163,  164,  169. 


Wolcott ville,  336. 
Woodbridge,  56,  59,  65,  153. 
Woodbury,  20,  94,  384. 


Y. 


Yale  College,  4,  9,  67,  68,  193,  203, 
212,  213,  248,  250,  425  ;  graduates 
of,  29,  58,  186,  214,  345;  chapel, 
4,  106  ;  medical  department,  120- 
122. 

Yale,  Mr.,  4. 

Yantic,  387,  405. 

Yarrington,  Eev.  B.  M.,  438. 

York,  Cathedral  at,  127. 


Zoar,  336. 
Zuinglius,  330. 


VOL.  II 


30 


